Foreign direct Investment and learning regions development in new EU member countries

In this study we address the potential rise of innovative regions in Central and Eastern Europe by connecting the interests of foreign investors and the interests of recipient regions as learning regions. Our exploratory results give a rather pessimistic picture in that enhancing the innovative level of the regional economy seems limited to those cases where there is already an existing system of innovative suppliers in the region and where this system can be used within the strategy of the foreign investor. The preliminary observations indicate a need for a general policy to acquire and absorb new knowledge, as well as targeted policy measures to benefit from foreign direct investment in terms of knowledge spillovers info the regional economy.