Business potential of technology in central and eastern Europe

Technology acts as a powerful driver for entrepreneurial activities. Basic technological innovations have to be transformed into competitive products to achieve business success. In this sense manufacturing research represents a good example of transformation of basic innovations into practical applications. Many Central and Eastern European countries can be characterized by their strong basic research capabilities. But there were problems identifying the possible variety of develoment, production, and marketing was not efficiently accumulated. The following parts report the impressions of the author from repeated visits in 1990/1 to Russian and Central and Eastern European institutions and companies in order to evaluate the possibilities for cooperation.