Archive of articles - April 1999, page 3

No takers for GSM 1800

An international tender for a license to operate a mobile phone network - the GSM 1800 - failed for lack of interest, the Ministry of Transport, Post and Telecommunications reported.Stanislav Vanek, the head of the ministry's regulation department, said the ministry had not received any bids to operate the GSM 1800 mobile network by the deadline, which was set for 1:00 p.m. on April 15. He added that the ministry had received letters from three potential applicants, who announced that after analysing the market they had decided not to take part in the tender.The Ministry issued detailed conditions for the international tender in mid-January, but later changed the conditions in March.

Retail Sales up 3.1% in February

Ten candidates hope for the presidential palace

Ten candidates will vie for the presidency of Slovakia on March 15. Along with the four major candidates highlighted below, the candidates are SDK deputy Juraj Švec, former HZDS member and diplomat Ivan Mjartan, Communist Party nominee Juraj Lazarčík, chairman of the opposition far-right Slovak National Party Ján Slota, independent candidate and philosopher Boris Zala and businessman Ján Demikát.. The final eligibity of each of the candidates will be determined by Parliamentary Speaker Jozef Migaš by April 16.

Government computer drive slowed

Moving the Slovak government up to speed in computerisation is the job of Martin Sepp, the head of the Department of "Informatisation and Rationalisation" for the state goverment. According to Sepp, there has been an increase in the amount of information and services available via the Internet to Slovak citizens since the beginning of 1999, and also improvements in the network the government uses to communicate internally.Sepp said he would like to see changes in the sector proceed faster, but added that financing is a problem, especially now that much of the money earmarked for computer networks must be used for the state's Millennium Bug preparations.

Globtel sell-off will grant power maker a cash boost

The Slovak Economy Ministry is moving ahead swiftly on the recently announced sale of its 36% stake in mobile network operator Globtel GSM. The sale is expected to bring billions of urgently needed crowns into five state-owned utility companies whose debts are creating a heavy drain the state budget.Economy Minister Ľudovít Černák announced last week that 3.6 billion crowns ($86.72 million) is the minimum bid the government will accept for the Globtel shares. About 2 billion would flow into energy company Slovenské Elektrátrne (SE), which owns the majority of the govenment's share of Globtel. The estimate was based on offers submitted by investment banks, Černák told journalists.

Foreign firms dominate Slovak computer market

In light of the uncertain economic conditions of 1998, which included an divisive election and losses to the value of the Slovak crown, computer sales did surprisingly well in 1998, according to the editor of PC Revue Magazine, which conducted a survey on PC sales in Slovakia in February and March (see above chart).According to sales figures provided by computer distributors in Slovakia and estimates derived from the number of computer components sold, between 85,000 and 120,000 PCs were purchased in Slovakia last year, said Martin Drobný, the Editor-in-chief of PC Revue.Of those, 37,266 were computers carrying trademarks, including 29,797 desktops, 6,145 notebooks and 1,324 PC servers. Between 50,000-80,000 additional computers were sold by small firms who purchase foreign components and then sell computers without an official trademark.

Quote of the Week

Tatra Banka reports earnings of 1.28 billion crowns in 1998

Ex-SIS head Lexa taken into custody

"You don't give a damn about the constitution! You breach the rights of a deputy," shouted Ivan Lexa, deputy for the opposition HZDS party, on April 15 as the parliament voted to put him into police custody. Lexa faces charges of abusing his power as a former boss of the Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS) under the reign of ex-Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar.Lexa will stand trial for his alleged involvement in the abduction of Michal Kováč, Jr., the son of the former Slovak president, as well as his role in a car theft, in the illegal sale of a precious church picture, in the placing of an explosive device, and in the illegal monitoring of the NMT mobile telephone network.While his constitutionally granted immunity from prosecution had already been lifted on April 9, the decision to put him in custody required another vote of parliament. The vote was called, said Jaroslav Ivor, general director of the investigation section at the Interior Ministry, on the appeal of an investigator to prevent Lexa from attempting to influence the testimony of witnesses to his alleged crimes.

Presidential race a prelude to HZDS control

Vladimír Mečiar's most recent moves are a play [to create the possibility of a no-confidence vote in the current government] and bring about premature general elections. The HZDS chairman's last-minute enrollment as a presidential candidate is a part of this game too. The mellowed chief ideologist of the [HZDS] movement, Augustín Marián Húska, [recently] expressed this new game in his own specific way:"The presidential elections must not be understood as some final point only, but more as a point on a route," he said. "Again we will aspire to have a majority of the nation incline towards a statemaking bloc and turn against the statebreaking bloc."The political elite, especially those with the national-Christian wing of HZDS, are planning to use the advancing presidential campaign to move into action their party lines, rev up their organization structures, test some new tactical moves, and prove the possibility of broadening their electorate. Naturally, they also have in mind the best possible results in the direct presidential elections.

NATO bombings cause losses to Slovak shipping company

Compaq claims Digital merger now resulting in higher sales

The 1998 merger of Digital and Compaq, two of the largest global information technology (IT) companies, was expected to bolster Compaq's already firm grasp of the largest computer hardware and software sales share on the Slovak market.Instead, disappointing results in 1998 desktop, laptop and server sales cut Compaq's once dominant position on the Slovak market nearly in half with IBM Slovakia dramatically filled the gap. In February, Compaq officials said that the statistics were a reflection of the Slovak economy and insisted that sales would begin to pick up in the near future."We are hoping that the acquisition will spur higher revenues than were produced by the formerly independent companies," said Jozef Jurkovič, sales and marketing manager of Compaq Slovakia. "We hope that in this case, one plus one equals three."

Labor Office expects unemployment to reach or exceed 20%

Cabinet sends aid to Kosovo refugees

The government of Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda has allocated 84 million crowns ($2.04 million) to open a camp for at least 500 Kosovo refugees and send humanitarian aid to the refugees seeking safety in Albania and Macedonia.Five days after the money was granted on April 9, the Parliament passed a resolution supporting Dzurinda's standpoint towards NATO over sharp objections from the opposition, which prolonged parliamentary debates on the matter for two weeks by criticising the cabinet for allowing NATO bombers and fighter jets to fly over Slovak soil.Opposition deputies from the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) party and the far-right nationalist Slovak National (SNS) party took turns lobbing the majority of the 334 debate comments, some of which charged that the government was bringing Slovakia into a war against the innocent citizens of Yugoslavia.

Slovak, Czech, Polish and Hungarian PMs to Meet in Bratislava

IMF officials examine Slovakia's banking reform plans

Balkan conflict creates major increase in flights over Slovakia

Microsoft asks state for piracy crackdown

International computer software titan Microsoft says that European software piracy accounts for billions of dollars in lost revenues every year. Citing Slovakia as a major haven for offenders, Microsoft has declared its intentions to crack down on the acts of "robbery" here and is calling on the Slovak government for assistance.Marketing manager for Microsoft Slovakia, Juraj Belvončík, said that "between thirty and fifty percent" of all computer systems in Slovakia currently operate under illegal systems and added that he believed the problem could be broken down into three causes.

Foreign investors buoy central Slovakia

Central Slovakia is proving an attractive destination for foreign investors, to judge by the number of new factories that have recently begun construction around the town of Martin. Investment experts put the influx down to the Martin municipal government's attractive investment package, as well as to the improving image of Slovakia as a whole.In mid-March, an agreement was signed on the construction of a new factory for production of car passenger compartment linings in the town of Koštany nad Turcom, about 20 kilometers south of Martin. The investor is the American concern Johnson Controls, one of the biggest worldwide suppliers of automobile seats and interiors.The factory is just one of a number that are being built in the Martin region, bringing jobs to an area with an unemployment level of around 14%.