Bulgaria

Population: 7.3 million
GDP per capita: $13,200
Literacy rate: 98.2%
Forecast economic growth, 2009: 1.8%
Foreign direct investment, 2008 $8.9 billion

The European Unions poorest country, Bulgaria has become a low-cost manufacturing venue for everything from semiconductors to bathroom fixtures. It even has a nascent filmmaking industry. Here, a streetcar in Sofia, the capital.