| As of today, those countries don't yet have functioning stock markets,
and the privatization efforts have only sold relatively small firms
(like bakery shops) to locals (see recent issues of _The_Economist_
for details).
In the near future all plan to privatize, but their plans all involve
favoring local investment over active foreign investment and that over
passive foreign investment. I don't think it'd be easy to buy shares
directly, and as far as I know, there are no mutual funds which are
collecting money in anticipation of stock to buy (but there might be,
and I suspect if any avenue exists today, it'll be to Hungary's market,
as that has been open the longest).
On the other hand, many Western firms are investing, and you can buy
shares in those firms, like the many German firms going into former
Eastern Germany, etc. "Emerging markets"-type funds will be going into
those markets when they open up, I am sure. You could try calling
T. Rowe Price and Fidelity, etc. to see what their plans are.
Personally I think there's no penalty for waiting on Eastern
Europe--I'm assuming there's lots of bad news not yet public
which will drop the prices after the market opens. In the long
run, Czechoslovakia strikes me as the best bet, with Hungary and
Poland trailing, and the rest far behind, but that's based on
those countries' relative performance before the world wars.
-John Bishop
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