Archive of articles - June 1997

Loud protesters throw peas at government

About 8,000 people gathered on June 3 in front of the government's seat in Bratislava to express dissatisfaction with the marred May 23-24 public vote on NATO accession and direct presidential election. Similar protests, although much smaller in scale, were organized in Košice, Trnava, Nitra, Prešov, Trenčín and Banská Bystrica.Organized by the eight opposition parties who had engineered the petition drive for direct presidential election earlier this year, the rally called "We won't let them to silence us!" was loud indeed. People brought trumpets, sirens, drums, whistles and virtually anything noisy.A special ingredient of the rally, though, was peas. A Slovak saying, "Throwing peas on the wall" describes a situation in which reproaches or criticism lead nowhere. At the rally's end, people threw bushels of peas on the building of the government, which opposition leaders claim hasn't ignored the vox populi for too long.

Demand still high for top managers, but wages vary wildly

The Slovak job market continues to be characterized by demand for high-skilled middle to top level management outpacing supply.Given this development, it comes as no surprise that despite attempts to stabilize wage levels, salaries continue to vary wildly, directors from leading personnel recruitment agencies in Slovakia said. "I have seen, for example, financial managers making anywhere between 14,000 Sk to 60,000 Sk," said Ronald Baštýř, a consultant with Personnel Select. "And the difference does not always reflect quality."Because of the dearth of well-qualified candidates, Baštýř said it was harder to fill key positions at companies in Slovakia than in many Western countries. Marta Kubinská, a consultant with Helmut Neumann International, said that wage differences are due to different capital resources. "Generally, foreign companies which usually have a strong financial background try to offer high salaries in order to get the best people," she said.

Let the free market be free

The National Bank of Slovakia's barricading of the Slovak crown is the reason why the Slovak crown escaped the same fate as the Czech crown (which lost nearly 10 percent of its value after the Czech National Bank withdrew it from its dollar/mark basket after a sustained speculative assault on the currency). That deserves praise. The bank, against many odds, has kept these same raiders on the Czech crown at bay on the Slovak market, thus keeping the Slovak crown from devaluing, and the economy from facing an earthquake at an inopportune time, given the political reverberations still rippling from the government's marring of the referendum.But this tense three-week conflict can't hide the larger problem confronting the Slovak economy, and the fact that the government's intense desire to micro-manage the economy is going against the grain of what a free-market is about - and the future viability of the Slovak economy as well.

Current account 15.7 bn in red after April

The decision: conquer your fear and believe

Developing a marketing plan is not easy. It sends many of us into a cold sweat just thinking about it. But it's critical, and you must conquer that initial fear and carry it out, because it forms the foundation for the long-term goal of any brand or product.The core of any marketing plan is the marketing objective and strategy statements. These are critical business decisions which follow from the situation analysis and set the stage for formulating plans.Your marketing objectives are numerical goals which should be specific (you know exactly where you are going), measurable (you know when you have arrived) and achievable (you know you can get there). It can refer to any of a host of management categories, such as sales volume, market share, profitability, etc.

Banks offer higher short-term interest

Trade deficit for the first four months corrected

Bratislava's Top Pizza Places

Košice teachers still without labor accord

Third private TV station to hit Slovak market

The two-to-one ratio of public (STV1 and STV2) to commercial (TV Markíza) television channels broadcasting nationwide via terrestrial transmission is going to flip. On June 4, the Council for Radio and TV Broadcasting selected ProTV from among nine contenders to privatize STV2.In order to keep the license, the company has to start operating the frequency no later than 360 days after it was granted.Both the Parliamentary opposition and a professional TV association - the Union of Slovak Television Artists - united against the privatization. The former because it fears further expansion of the media empire under the influence of Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar's Movement for Democratic Slovakia (HZDS). The latter because it fears that the entire concept of public television is being undermined.

Nafta Gbely privatizer tries to cure sore image

Seems like a job for Arnold Schwarzenegger. However, in the film "Eraser", he had to delete the identity of a fragile woman. Here, the task is a bit more difficult, since the reputation of an entire company needs to be erased, especially when that company is the one that privatized Nafta Gbely.A massive promotional campaign by Druhá Obchodná a.s., the company that last year privatized Nafta Gbely, a family jewel of the Slovak economy, angered some, amused others, but succeeded in full by drawing new attention to this mysterious and notorious firm.The apparent contrast between the ads presenting Druhá Obchodná as a serious enterprise that prefers professionalism to connections, and its public perception as a cover-up created to allow certain leading political figures to privatize Nafta, left many stunned. "I just can't believe this," said one manager employed in the government sector who requested anonymity. "They have no shame."

Slovak Telecom to introduce peak hours on July 1

Letter to the Editor: HZDS reacts to editorial

VÚB Kupón posts 115.3m Sk loss

The Spotlight

Benzinol posted 266.7m Sk after-tax income in 1996

NBS' Forex reserves declined by $300 million

Letter to the Editor: Dunajská Streda's Jews memorialized

Gaining a foothold, Creditanstalt eyes eastern markets wanting to use Slovakia as springboard

Creditanstalt a.s., Bratislava, is working on increasing its share of if individual clients while looking to expand outside the capital soon. Last year, it reported a net profit of 23 million Sk, while the expected profit for 1997 is 110 million Sk. Although the bulk of the bank's clients still consists of corporate ones the bank is eying different regions in the country for new customers."About 50-60 percent of our loans are provided to production companies" said Regina Ovesny-Straka, Creditanstalt's general director. "Half of our clients are domestic companies," she continued. "Of course, as we move into more regions, we expect the share of production companies as well as domestic clients to grow."Creditanstalt's network in Slovakia is less developed compared to in other neighboring countries. The bank came to Slovakia just three years ago in 1994 while it gained a foothold in the Czech Republic five years ago, and in Hungary six years ago.