Transition Economies — Integration into the World Economy

Abstract

I am going to interpret my mandate rather broadly and with a special spin: trying to be forward looking and drawing lessons across countries. It is very important to identify what lessons we can draw from the more successful countries in Central Europe that are relevant to the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). I believe we have not spent enough time in our discussions during the last two days on Russia and other CIS countries. We have twelve countries in the CIS representing most of the population of the transition countries. They are the poorest countries, and many of them face the most difficult challenges. So I will fo¬cus on trying to draw some lessons from the most successful countries that are relevant to the countries in the CIS.