We have long argued here at Property Secrets that long term growth in the new EU members and EU accession countries will be dependent on a continued ability to attract foreign investment (FDI).

And those countries that will continue to attract this investment in the long-term will not be those countries who simply sell themselves to investors as places offering low production costs because of cheap wages.

The reality is that the country that is cheap today will be more expensive that an increasingly attractive neighbour tomorrow.

To continue to attract FDI, the former communist countries that joined the EU in 2004, must continue to reform, continue to keep taxes low and continue to move increasingly into high-value manufacturing, such as is happening with aviation and bio-technology in Poland - note the bio-technology centres in particular in Wroclaw, Poznan and Krakow.

That's our theory anyway. It is this investment in higher-end manufacturing that will create the jobs and growing spending power among a large sector of society that is already well-educated.