71.   Donors welcomed the recent budget but cautioned that expenditure reduction must not be at the expense of needed public investment.

72.   Vientiane hopes that joining ASEAN will help boost its international image and help promote much needed foreign investment.

73.   Maskhadov will face an uphill task in attracting desperately needed investment to rebuild the republic, and Moscow reiterated Wednesday that it had no intention of paying war reparations.

74.   Many, however, say they feel pressure from Taiwan to allow more official representation in exchange for badly needed investment.

75.   Pakistan hopes the ongoing privatisation of its state-owned telecom, oil and gas sectors will attract much-needed foreign investment, a minister said Sunday.

76.   The company already faces financial difficulties that have starved the railways of much-needed investment for the modernization of the network.