Central Europe will maintain its impressive five per cent growth rates, which far outpace western Europe’s economic performance only if it completes free market reforms, warns the CE Top 500, 2007, a new Deloitte authored, ranking and report on the region’s 500 largest companies.

The Deloitte Central Europe Top 500 charts companies’ progress in a region, which stretches from the Adriatic to the Baltic and the Black Sea and contains a raft of countries, all of which have either already joined the European Union or are at various stages of the EU accession process.

The Deloitte report says that reform policies and, above all, privatisation, must be pursued by governments in Central Europe. Only then will the region be able to catch up the countries in western Europe within the working lives of children born at the start of the post 1989 transformation.

Deloitte also warns, quoting exclusive interviews with CEOs from companies throughout the region, that Central Europe, will only continue to attract foreign direct investment if urgent changes in education systems are made which will bring new skills to the workplace.

The recommendation comes as rising labour and other costs mean that Central Europe can no longer market itself to foreign investors, solely, as a low cost region. The CE Top 500 ranking, comes as a young people born after 1989 - a full generation free of communist influence - join the workforce, marking an exciting turning point for the region.

The CE Top 500 ranking charts the fortunes of the largest 500 companies in the region by revenue, profits, employment and capitalisation. The ranking shows little change from the previous year with PKN Orlen, Poland’s oil refiner and petroleum distributor, still at the top of the list with other energy companies including MOL of Hungary and CEZ of the Czech Republic close by. The other top slots are filled by automobile manufacturers led by the Volkswagen owned Skoda from the Czech Republic followed by Audi in Hungary and Volkswagen’s own subsidiary in Slovakia. Telekomunikacja Polska, the telecommunications provider from Poland is the only non energy related, non auto company in the region’s top ten.

The biggest foreign investors by revenue are Volkswagen, the auto manufacturer, Arcelor Mittal, the multinational steel group and Metro, the retailer. CEZ, the Czech energy giant leads the market capitalisation ranking followed by two banks in Poland, Pekao SA and PKO BP.

The CE Top 500 also contains charts showing the largest companies in Banking (CSOB, Czech Republic), Insurance (PZU, Poland), Construction (Skanska CS, Czech Republic), Energy and resources (PKN Orlen, Poland, Manufacturing (Skoda, Czech Republic), Pharmaceuticals (Chinon Zrt/Sanofi Aventis, Hungary) and Technology, Media and Telecommunications (Telekomunikacja Polska SA, Poland).

For more details and to download the report, please visit: www.deloitte.com/sk/en/cetop500

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About Deloitte Central Europe

Deloitte Central Europe is a regional organization of entities organized under the umbrella of Deloitte Central Europe Holdings Limited, the member firm in Central Europe of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. Services are provided by the subsidiaries and affiliates of Deloitte Central Europe Holdings Limited, which are separate and independent legal entities.

The subsidiaries and affiliates of Deloitte Central Europe Holdings Limited are among the region’s leading professional services firms, providing services through more than 4000 people in more than 30 offices in 17 countries.

About Deloitte Slovakia

In Slovakia, the services are provided by Deloitte Audit s.r.o., Deloitte Tax k.s. and Deloitte Advisory s.r.o. (jointly referred to as “Deloitte Slovakia”) which are affiliates of Deloitte Central Europe Holdings Limited. Deloitte Slovakia is one of the leading professional services organizations in the country providing audit, tax, consulting, risk services and financial advisory services through over 240 national and specialized expatriate professionals.

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