| Private investment averaged just under 17 percent of GDP in the five-year period 1998-2002. Foreign direct investment averaged 3 percent of GDP during the same period. The informal sector accounts for 67 percent of GNP in Georgia, 61 percent in Azerbaijan and 52 percent in Ukraine.  Selected investment climate indicators An annex to the World Development Report 2005 contains indicators from the World Bank’s Investment Climate Surveys and the Doing Business Database, with explanations of how the indicators were constructed. Findings for the region include:
Investment Climate Surveys
Doing Business Database   Investment Climate Surveys  - The Investment Climate Surveys were implemented in all 27 countries in the region in 2002/03, covering over 7000 registered firms.
- Policy uncertainty ranks as the number one concern in the region, with almost 40 percent of firms ranking it as a major or severe constraint. Twelve percent of firms in Slovenia and Estonia cited it as a major constraint, while 60 percent did so in Belarus.Â
- Macroeconomic instability is reported as the second most pressing constraint.
- Confidence in courts to uphold property rights varies from less than 30 percent of firms in Moldova to 70 percent in Estonia.Â
- The time management has to spend dealing with officials ranges from 5.5 percent in the Czech Republic to about 15 percent in Ukraine, Georgia and Serbia and Montenegro.
Doing Business Database
 - Registering property takes over 950 days in Bosnia and Herzegovina and only three days in Lithuania.
- Enforcing a contract can take over 1000 days in Poland, Serbia and Montenegro and Slovenia and 189 in Latvia.
The Report shows that the returns to investment climate improvements can dwarf the impact of international aid flows. The manufacturing value-added in Hungary and Poland together almost equal total global official aid flows. Â
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