About 17 percent of mainly western European companies are considering to relocate or reorganize activities in the following two years, half of them focus on eastern and central Europe, according to a study published Thursday in Paris.

In 2004, the figure was 18 percent, recalled the authors of the study fulfilled by British real estate group Cushman and Wakefield in June and July with executives from 501 companies.

A total of 52 percent of these companies see relocate their activities in the European Union (EU)'s new member countries (51 percent in 2004) and 21 percent prefer install them in other European countries or outside EU.

Besides eastern and central Europe, Asia, especially China, is cited as favorite destinations by 29 percent, compared with 22 percent in 2004, followed by other western European countries (25 percent), India (23 percent), Latin America (10 percent), Southeast Asia (10 percent) and South Africa (3.0 percent).

The survey also revealed that 61 percent of them were thinking about moving their production activities and 15 percent were considering a foreign call center.

London, Paris, Frankfurt and Brussels remain four best cities to install activities in Europe, followed by Barcelona, Amsterdam and Madrid, said the survey.

Source: Xinhua