Archive of articles - October 1998, page 3

Slovak September CPI up 0.4 pct mo/mo, 5.9 pct yr/yr

A very naughty boy

Quotes of the Week

Central bank forex reserves fall to $2.94 billion as of Oct 7

Press Digest

Topvar penetrates Swedish market

HZDS surrenders

The HZDS party of outgoing Premier Vladimír Mečiar says it has seen the writing on the wall, and will soon give way to allow parties of the former political opposition to form a new government."Our attempt to form a government will soon end. It will end before the first session of parliament on October 29," said Ján Smerek, the HZDS deputy entrusted with the job of trying to stitch together a coalition with enough votes to rule in Slovakia's 150-seat parliament.Speaking at a press conference on October 14, Smerek called himself a "pragmatist," and said the HZDS would not "stretch time" in fruitless attempts to stay in power.

Letter to the Editor: Criticism of Kubiš unwarranted

Foreign Ministry elite take new posts abroad

The Slovak treasury is virtually empty, but the outgoing government of Premier Vladimír Mečiar is still paying millions of crowns to have its ambassadorial candidates set up abroad in newly renovated quarters. Members of the former opposition parties, who are likely to form the next government, say that the new ambassadors will be recalled at the first opportunity, and charge that state funds are being senselessly thrown away."If some politicians take shelter abroad, knowing that the new government is just about to be created, to me that's incorrect behaviour," said Pavol Kanis, vice chairman of the reformed communist SDĽ party. Eduard Kukan, a former Foreign Minister and a deputy with the SDK opposition party, said that the new appointments were "nothing but a well-constructed provocation against the new government."

Chick'n'Chips closed

Chick'n'Chips fast-food company has closed its three outlets in Slovakia due to unbearable financial problems, depriving McDonald's Slovakia restaurants of one of their few domestic competitors."We had to take this step because of the generally bad economic situation in Slovakia," said Marta Rejholcová, the company's legal representative. Rejholcová explained that the company had been granted a 32 million Sk ($880,000) bank loan to start the business."With respect to the continuous rise in interest rates and the gradually increasing prices of input materials, we couldn't make anything out of the company expansion," Rejholcová said, adding that the company's management had first started considering the option of closing the business one year ago.

The return of Keltošová

Oľga Keltošová, vice chairman of outgoing Premier Vladimír Mečiar's HZDS party, returned abruptly from her post as Slovak ambassador to the UN on October 11."Once I realised that the HZDS counts on me to further my political career...and because on October 12 the certificates [for newly elected members of Parliament] were to be given out, I decided to quit New York immediately," she said.Keltošová returned amid mounting speculation that the next government, likely to be formed of parties of the former opposition, would use its powers to recall all ambassadors appointed by Mečiar since he assumed Presidential powers on March 3. If she had not claimed her deputy's mandate, Keltošová could have found herself without a job of any kind.

STV receives public spanking

On September 23, during the moratorium that prohibits all media from publishing or broadcasting information favouring politicians or their parties within 48 hours of elections, the public STV station broadcast a speech given by Ivan Gašparovič, the Speaker of Parliament and a candidate for the HZDS party of Vladimír Mečiar. In the speech, Gašparovič urged voters to "vote with your hearts", a word-by-word restatement of the HZDS campaign motto.For this infraction, Slovakia's independent media watchdog, the Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting (RRTV), fined STV one million Slovak crowns ($27,400) on October 6.STV was also found guilty of violating the Slovak Constitution for broadcasting a documentary which claimed that the opposition KDH party had been trying to hawk antique relics and objets d'art abroad.

US Agency for International Development and World Learning KNO Programme

Since 1992, more than 200 Slovak professionals have participated in a short-term, three to five week training programme named TRANSIT (Technical Training for Societies in Transition). Founded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and administered by World Learning/KNO, the training programme has targeted middle and senior management in the banking, capital market and municipal finance sectors. From 1996, the training focus has broadened, and this year 10 professionals received training in the public sector field. On October 7, those participants were awarded Certificates of Achievement by US Ambassador Ralph Johnson and Paula Goddard , the USAID Representative to Slovakia.

SNP square renewed

Bratislava's Slovak National Uprising square, one of the largest squares in the city centre, will have a fresh look by 2005. City officials say SNP's new face will cover a massive $100 million parking facility that will alleviate some of the capital's most pressing parking problems."The square, with its busy occupied streets and pathways, suffers from a lack of parking spots these days, as does the whole city," said Elena Peťková, head of the environmental office at Bratislava's Old Town City Hall. "Reconstruction of the square should solve some problems with overwhelming traffic and increasing parking requirements," Peťková added.The underground section of the project should contain up to 800 parking spots, and will be partly equipped with automatic parking devices capable of parking vehicles without the driver's assistance.

SAX continues tumble amid currency fall

The most important event of the first week of October was a change of the fixed foreign exchange rate regime into a floating regime. Immediately after the NBS canceled the fluctuation band, the koruna reacted by weakening to 16% below the former parity due to the perception of market participants that the currency had been overvalued.Problems with financing the budget deficit, the persistently high current account deficit (11% of GDP in 1H98) and the growing indebtedness of the public sector had fuelled depreciation expectations.Following the change in the currency regime, trading on the equity market was extremely cautious and the SAX experienced a new all-time low of 98.22 on October 2. Later the market continued a downward movement and the index dipped to 95.98.

Housing stalled

One of the most important pre-election promises of the largest opposition party, the SDK, was an enormous increase in housing construction. "From 1999 to 2002, we'll build an average of 14,000 flats a year," reads the party's programme. But while new housing in Slovakia has shown an overall uptrend in 1998, the current dire shortage of state finances suggests that the SDK will find its housing promises tough to keep over the next few years.During the first half of 1998, the number of completed flats climbed to 3,506, a 21% increase over the same period last year. The increase in housing starts - 92.2% - was even more dramatic. However, the Ministry of Construction and Public Works had originally planned for 10,000 new flats in 1998, which means that even the improved housing figures fell 35% short of the target for the first half of the year.

Slovakia plans 70% wheat import tariff

OTF Holding looks for strategic partner

Salting Slovakia's wounds

Not content to leave Slovakia an economic cripple after four years of misrule, the outgoing government of Premier Mečiar is using its last days in power to revenge itself on the academic community and fritter away scarce state funds before a new cabinet takes control.These childish and spiteful gestures go beyond the honoured tradition of making a political opponent's seat hot for him. Freezing funds for universities and making last-minute renovations of embassies inhabited by party allies make no political sense whatsoever. These acts are the equivalent of a temper tantrum thrown by a child who for once hasn't had everything his own way. Mečiar himself said it best in his final television appearance on September 30, when he scolded the public for voting in an opposition majority. "You've taken everything from me," he sulked.