Archive of articles - January 1999

Two killed in multiple car and bus accident

Slovak Romanies get glimpse of better future

Slovakia's Romany minority, which numbers some 300,000 people, has been given new hope that its biggest concerns - social welfare and unemployment - will be tackled by a new team of cabinet-appointed officials.Romany representatives say, however, that the cabinet's accelerated efforts to solve the country's minority problems are designed more to fulfill EU accession criteria than to help the troubled ethnic community."The cabinet's will to solve Romany issues is positive, but they've done too little to make a real change," said Klára Orgovánová, a leading Romany activist and Programme Director with the Open Society Fund.

Cabinet breaks pact with unions

The January 28 passage of a long-awaited package of economic austerity measures over the objections of Slovaki unions has triggered some nasty doubts among many union leaders as to the intentions of the cabinet - will it keep faith with its labour constituency, they ask, or will the government ditch unions in its headlong pursuit of investment capital?"If it came down to a choice between unions and a foreign investor which refused to deal with unions, I believe this government would side with the investor," said Jozef Kollár, vice president of the Confederation of Slovak Unions, the KOZ.

Police force president apologises

Sacked STV staff held on top floor of station

Prohibited from working and watched by a guard, 26 unwanted employees of the state-owned Slovak Television (STV) station have been holed up since January 4 at the top of the firm's 28-floor building. They have been told they must live out their work hours in the airless room until their contracts terminate some time in the next three months."We are being discriminated against, and the state under which we're kept here is inhuman," said Roman Mistrík, spokesman of the group and former deputy chief-editor of the STV newsroom.

Three skiers seriously injured

EU gives Slovakia pat on back

A January 20-22 session of the EU-Slovakia Joint Parliamentary Committee brought an encouraging announcement from EU parliamentarians: Slovakia has fulfilled the Committee's recommendations over the last few months. Although the Committee used the meeting to draw up another 23 tasks which must be completed in the near future, the Slovak side expressed pleasure at the results and said it was sure that official talks on Slovakia's entry to the EU would start at the EU Helsinki Summit in December.Ľuboš Kubín, a political scientist with the Slovak Academy of Sciences, said that "this result shows that the EU is taking a real interest in Slovakia, and showed that Slovakia is not an isolated country - it has been offered an embrace."

Priemyselna Banka gets BB long term rating

Capital Intelligence has assigned initial ratings for Slovakia's Priemyselna banka (PRB) in Košice of BB long term and A-3 short term, the Cyprus-based bank ratings agency said on January 26. A stable outlook is appended to the ratings, it said in a news release.Capital Intelligence said the bank has spent three years building up its loan-loss reserves, which now cover 80% of non performing loans. Unprovided non performing loans represented a significantly smaller portion of free capital for 1997 as compared to the previous year.In addition, the agency said positive factors were the bank's clear marketing strategy and the 20% of its capital held by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

Small Carpathians offer a quiet winter escape

The dead of winter in Bratislava can be downright depressing. Mother Nature throws a thick gray blanket over the smog-stained blocks of flats circling the old town. Pedestrians shuffle across icy sidewalks to catch filthy buses full of stale air, and the sun remains a foggy memory. But just a short car or bus ride from downtown, even the darkest days of winter can seem a little brighter.The 50-kilometer stretch of the Small Carpathian foothills, between Bratislava's Rača district and Smolenice, has been Slovakia's premier wine-growing region since Roman times. As you travel along road 502 from Bratislava, there's no mistaking the focus of towns such as Svätý Júr, Pezinok and Modra. Vineyards are everywhere.

Dzurinda's parents threatened

U.S. says Slovakia on right track for NATO

The United States told the new Slovak government on January 22 that its performance since taking power in October had put the country on track to qualify for membership in NATO and other Western institutions.Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told Slovak Foreign Minister Eduard Kukan that his country, after years without reform, was reclaiming "its rightful place" in Europe and the world. "A year ago ... I feared Slovakia could become a hole in the map of Europe. Today, after just three months of the new government, such fears are rapidly receding," she said, speaking at a joint news conference with Kukan.

Interest rates becoming very attractive

The Slovak foreign exchange market experienced another calm period compared to neighbouring markets where we saw sharp movements and highly volatile trading. The Slovak crown (Sk) tested the level of 43.000 against the Euro again. However the crown was well bid at that level, supported mainly by high interest rates.The crown was less sensitive compared to the other emerging market currencies and thus was well supported by speculative safe-haven buying by foreign financial institutions, as the Brazil problems still cast a cloud over emerging markets. Thus the exchange rate against the Euro moved lower and reached 42.780/830, the closing level on January 27.

Slovak equity market undergoes technical correction

The market experienced a technical correction during the last fourteen days as the SAX index fell by 3.2% to 91.53 on January 26. This correction was expected as a group of investors have taken advantage of remaining liquidity problems and the inflated prices of stocks in their portfolios.The stocks of the VÚB bank are the best example of this trend. A technical transfer of 100 shares on the last trading day of 1998 pulled the price of VÚB to 1,040 Sk, up 15% from the previous day. Since mid-January 1999, VÚB has experienced a sharp fall and has lost almost 50% of its 1998 year-end value. Slovakofarma gained 6% and seems to have stabilised at 2,000 Sk.

Michal Kováč, President of the Slovak Republic 1993-1998

Michal Kováč is back for another shot at the Slovak presidency. Having served five years as one of the fiercest opponents of Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar, Kováč has declared his desire to run for President in the first direct elections ever to be held for the post.Kováč earned international respect for his standing up to Mečiar during a stormy five year term in office. The object of repeated personal and political attacks from the Mečiar cabinet, Kováč also endured the mysterious drugging, beating and kidnapping of his son in 1995. Every year, however, he returned to parliament to deliver an annual address that criticised Mečiar and his allies for failing to respect democratic norms. Every year, cabinet members boycotted his speech.

Finance Ministry to sell off VÚB bank by March

The Finance Ministry said on January 26 that a plan for the privatisation of the state's 50.8% stake in one of the country's biggest banks, VÚB a.s., would be ready by March.After its approval by the government, the ministry said it would take practical steps to bring the plan to fruition with a final decision on the future strategic investor probably being taken at the beginning of next year."...The government will, as one of its priorities, work on making more attractive the conditions for the entry of a solvent foreign investor who could take part in a public tender in this privatisation transaction," a statement from the ministry said.

Road to the EU paved with good intentions, untried laws

A group of Hungarian parliamentary deputies are working furiously on a draft version of the last legislative change the European Union has demanded of Slovakia - a language law that guarantees the rights of minorities living on Slovak soil.The problem is that the law, which is to be passed in shortened legislative proceedings sometime in March or April, is being prepared with little apparent forethought for how it is to function in practice. Indeed, the cabinet is so anxious to satisfy EU and NATO demands on minority rights and other issues that one fears it may burden the country with some seriously flawed legislation.

High 1998 trade deficit surprises macro analysts

Slovakia's 80.9 billion Slovak crown ($2.2 billion) foreign trade deficit was slightly higher than expected, analysts said on January 27, but it failed to move the country's generally unresponsive currency market.Local macroeconomic analysts said the deficit, amounting to 11.2% of gross domestic product, was unsustainable and unless it was reduced, the country may have problems financing it. "It is bad...The high number was a little bit of a surprise" CSOB macroeconomic analyst Martin Finčák said.Tatra Banka's Ján Tóth added "it is the third year that Slovakia has had a deficit over 10% (of GDP), which of course, is unsustainable. What could happen is that other countries will not be willing to finance our deficit... this could lead to problems for the Slovak crown," he added.

Neighbours to boost economic ties

Hungary, Austria and Slovakia agreed on January 25 to boost economic cooperation, the three countries' leaders said after a trilateral summit in the western Hungarian city of Sopron."We agreed to hold an economic symposium in Györ (north Hungary), probably in September," Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told a news conference held jointly with Austrian Chancellor Viktor Klíma and Slovak Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda.

FNM brass inherited a sinking ship

Officials at the FNM state privatisation agency revealed on January 25 that the agency was vritually bankrupt, despite having privatised assets with a book value of 109.2 billion Slovak crowns ($2.95 billion) over the last four years. Firesale prices charged for state property, lenient installment plans for buyers and the use of bonds instead of cash to settle debts owed the FNM were alleged to have caused the current cash crisis.The FNM, or National Property Fund, said in a statement released to the media that the purchase price of the property sold between 1995 and November 1998 was only 30.7 billion Sk, or 28% of book value. Moreover, many of these sales contracts included installment calendars spreading the payment of the purchase price over periods of up to ten years, with the result that the FNM had received only 19.7 billion Sk of the agreed purchase prices by the end of 1998.