The World Economy and the East

by Gerhard Wagner, Director-General, Osterreichische Ui.nderbank AG and host of the Symposium Austria, which has long functioned as a bridge between the EC and the CMEA, plays an important role in both political and economic developments between East and West. Uinderbank is actively involved in East-West trade, and studies prepared by The Vienna Institute for Comparative Economic Studies (the WIIW) provide the bank with a valuable source of information with regard to the bank's business relationships with socialist countries. On the Institute's fifteenth anniversary, Uinderbank had the honour of hosting a Symposium with participants from twenty-two countries, which provided a forum for discussion and the exchange of competing ideas. I'd like to thank the Institute and its staff for their excellent work in the past, and wish it much success in the future. OSTERREICHISCHE IANDERSANK = A-1011 WIEN, AM HOF 2, TELEFON: (0043) 222/53124-0, TELEX: 115561, TELEFAX: 5312455 INTRODUCTION This volume is the result of a symposium organized on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the WIIW. It underscores the growing importance of intensified science-based East-West relations, a task which was always one of the basic aims of WIIW.