EIU's fifth annual CEO briefing survey, found that nine out of 10 top global executives rated business prospects during the next three years as "good" or "very good".

The main drivers behind the optimism among global business executives were the bustling emerging markets especially - India and China.

In the survey, majority of the 1,006 executives from around the world are planning to invest more in developing countries than in developed economies. One of the key finding of the survey shows that India is more upbeat than China.

Respondents from India are abuzz with optimism for the years ahead, with 98 per cent of them seeing "good" or "very good" business prospects.

Meanwhile, the survey pointed out that in comparison to India, China-based executives were notably less enthusiastic.

Eight out of the ten respondents in China say that the outlook is promising, but just three per cent agree that it is "very good", though both countries are highly positive about the prospects for business in 2007, the survey said.

The survey highlights the importance of emerging markets to companies as primary revenue and sourcing opportunities. A majority of respondents intend to invest more time and money in emerging markets over the next three years than in the developed economies.

The survey, which polls more than 1,000 executives every year is sponsored by UK Trade and Investment, a government body which promotes UK exports and inward investment.

"Emerging markets are clearly top of the agenda but they are not risk-free environments and the business culture is frequently very different," UK Trade and Investment chief executive Andrew Cahn said.

It is more important than ever that corporate leaders have access to high quality, impartial advice on which to base their management decisions, he said.

Interestingly, nearly a third of the executives (28 per cent) chose the latter option, up from 20 per cent in 2006 and just 9 per cent in 2005.

The reasons behind the growing optimism are mainly the expanding global economy by some 5.4 per cent in 2006 and is expected to continue to grow robustly over the next five years.