Archive of articles - May 1999, page 5

Local incentives sway investor decisions

Local government efforts to attract foreign investment to Slovakia's regions vary from sluggish to strenuous, making boomtowns of some cities and paupers of others. Investment advisors say that the variety of local responses to foreign firms threatens to negate the central government's plans to concentrate foreign investment in areas of high unemployment.The government of Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda declared direct foreign investment (FDI) into Slovakia a priority immediately after taking office last October, and followed up with an investment incentive plan in March 1999 to back up its words. The government plan called for a five year tax break for foreign firms that invested at least 5 million euros into Slovakia, and lowered the investment floor to one million euros for companies which invested in areas of high unemployment - mainly Slovakia's poorer eastern regions.

Culture Shock: What can be learned from cheating

After having taught university students for five years in Slovakia, I'm finally giving it up with some relief. I don't expect even a murmur of protest from the school I teach at, nor anything but grim satisfaction from most of my former employers. I've never been a very good teacher, and that's all there is to it.Most of what has made me a bad teacher comes from within - like many foreigners teaching in Slovakia, I used the job as a way to make friends, as a sop for my frustrations and a soapbox for my opinions - only rarely, I cringe to admit, as a means to enrich young minds.But while I'm being so hard on myself, I should spare a few cuts for the student culture Slovakia's crumbling university system has fostered.

Bank restructuring will take at least one year - Finance Ministry

Great expectations surround V4 summit

The Dzurinda government's chance to steer the country back into the central European integration mainstream arrived in Bratislava on May 14 with the first-ever summit of the 'Visegrad Four' - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia."Visegrad is no longer just a symbol - it is a very serious challenge for Slovakia and its V4 neighbours," said Foreign Minister Eduard Kukan in April. "Meeting this challenge will confirm Slovakia's maturity as a nation."Pavol Lukáč, an analyst with the Slovak Foreign Policy Association, said that the Bratislava summit should be seen as a rebirth of the Visegrad Alliance.

Nafta Gbely another wrong step for 'new' privatisation policy

No one wants to say it too loudly at the moment, but the government's recent handling of the intended sale of lucrative gas storage company Nafta Gbely is a reminder that corruption and meddling - and incompetence - have not entirely been purged from privatisation decisions in this country.The 1995 sale of Nafta Gbely, one of the crown jewels of the Slovak economy, to Trnava-area entrepreneur Vladimír Poór, was one of the most-criticised privatisation decisions made by the 1994-1998 government of Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar. Mečiar ally Poór was handed 45.9% of Nafta for a purchase price that was around one-seventh of its market value at the time.In January 1999, Poór began to make noises about selling his stake in Nafta, and offered it to two buyers - Slovak financier Jozef Majský, who claimed to have purchased Nafta in March, and the government, which pulled a wry face and said it wasn't about to reward Poór for having tunnelled the firm of all its prime assets.

NATO rockets destroy Slovak bureau of Novy Sad TV

UN Envoy for Kosovo Kukan to meet Kofi Annan

Tesco plans four new 'hyper-markets'

The British owned hyper-market and department store chain Tesco has negotiated deals with Nitra and Košice to open two new hyper-markets in 1999 and an additional two stores in the year 2000, one in Petržalka and the other in Pieštany, The Slovak Spectator has learned.While Tesco has officially confirmed the 1999 opening sites, officials at the company refused to give details about the other two locations. But the mayors of the towns where the stores are planned told The Slovak Spectator that negotiations had been completed and that they were awaiting the stores.The construction is part of an effort from Tesco to develop a series of hyper-markets in Slovakia. The large warehouse-style super stores will differ from Tesco department stores in that they will largely be located outside of city centers.

Slovalco reports 283 million Sk gross profit for 1Q99

Young opera stars awarded in Popp competition

On May 3-8, the Reduta Concert Hall of the Slovak Philharmonic in Bratislava hosted a week-long contest of opera music singers called the " Lucia Popp Vocal Competition" to support young opera singers starting in their careers. The contest was held in honor of what would have been the 60th birthday of deceased Slovak opera singer Lucia Popp, who started her career 35 years ago and for time performed abroad on illustrious world stages like the Teatro Alla Scala in Milan, Covent Garden in London and Grand Opera in Paris. Her success was followed by a talented generation of Bratislava opera singers including Edita Grúberová, Gabriela Beňačková, Sergej Kopčák, Magdaléna Hajóssyová and many others.

Whether to vote, or to mow the lawn

While I was away visiting Bratislava, my handyman Maťko fixed a button on my washing machine and the door to the porch. Now I just have to find someone to mow the lawn. Besides these problems, in about three weeks we will have provincial elections in Ontario. The current premier will probably win again because the economic situation is pretty good. That means the Progressive Conservatives will stay in power, while the Liberals and the Social Democrats don't have a chance. Worse than that, however, I'll have to go out and find someone to mow the lawn. I'll go to vote too, if I remember.If I were in Slovakia, I would have bigger problems with elections than with my lawn. I have looked at the list of Slovak candidates, I've watched the election ads, the discussion shows with the potential presidents, and in truth I would rather mow the lawn myself. The whole presidential race seems to me like deciding whether you'd rather be shot, knifed, suffocated or drowned. A tough choice.

Vagónka Poprad and US Steel interested in acquiring Martinmetal

Late first-round opinion poll predicted Schuster would win big

Canadian tourists beaten up by Bratislava's Mamut pub security

Police have confirmed that they are investigating an incident in which a group of 4 young Canadian men were involved in a fight with security personnel at Bratislava's Mamut pub on Thursday, May 6. The conflict left one of the Canadians requiring hospital treatment for facial lacerations and damage to his teeth, according to information obtained by The Slovak Spectator.The man who sustained the injuries, reportedly named Jesse Semko, filed criminal charges for assault against "unknown attackers" at the bar. The young visitors left Slovakia for Vienna early on May 7.Police officials at the Bratislava I District station on Sasinková Street refused to comment on the case, but Interior Ministry spokesman Jozef Sitár confirmed on May 12 that the police had already begun an investigation of the May 6 beatings. "The other side [Mamut security guards] has been interrogated as well," he said.

NBS vows stricter monetary policy

The Governor of the Slovak National Bank (NBS) Vladimír Masár said on May 13 there was no room for a fall in interest rates and that monetary policy would be more conservative. He also said that any moves to influence the rate of the currency would more likely come in the crown market than in foreign exchange operations. The Slovak crown, which was floated in October last year, has been touching all-time low levels against the euro in recent days. In early afternoon trading it was quoted at 45.45/55 to the euro. "What room there is for monetary policy, we see in the area of crown activities rather than in direct foreign currency interventions," Masár said."We think there is no room for the NBS to support the supply side (of the money market) to the extent that it could at the beginning of the year. Automatically, the interest rate decline will at least stop...We have to realise that interest rates have a certain protective function in terms of the crown exchange rate," he added.

Church to succour Yugoslav children

The international media is focused on the plight of the refugees of Kosovo, and world aid organizations are sending millions of dollars in funding to help them. But there are other victims of the crisis in Yugoslavia: the men, women, and children civilians who live in other regions also targeted by bombs.In the northern Yugoslav region of Vojvodina, for example, some 64,000 people of Slovak heritage are struggling to deal with the war's affects. In some towns, the air is heavy with pollution from bombed chemical and gas factories. Many children have ceased going to school. And though calls from Slovaks in Yugoslavia have flooded into Slovakia since the bombing began, those interested in providing aid say little can be done due to a strict economic embargo on Yugoslavia."Church organizations and humanitarian organizations here don't have a way to help," said Mária Gasperová, the theological director of the Evanjelická Diakonia, an arm of the Slovak Lutheran church. "Medical and food support can't be to send in, we can't help that way."

Slovak Rail to get 1.657 billion Sk from state in 1999

Community Grapevine

Schuster to speak at May Business LunchJumble Sale by International Women's ClubThe Friends of Slovakia Association Spring BanquetDays of Mexican Culture in Bratislava

American "big" is theme at Montana Grizzly Bar

If business goes right and the Slovak authorities are willing, one day ex-pats and Slovak trendies might spend their evenings soaking in a redwood hot tub in the center of the Bratislava old town with Coronas in hand. The well-heeled will walk past on a new Old Town footpath. Dreams? Maybe. But the owner of Bratislava's newest old town bar, the laid-back Montana Grizzly Bar, definitely likes to think big.Bratislava's newest bar hang-out is already pretty large. Located along side a spacious courtyard just above Michalská Gate, the white-painted, wood-beamed interior has enough room for more than 100 patrons inside. Outside, 20 tables now seat guests in sunshine and lamplight: and there is space for many more tables on an elevated gravel- covered platform which might one day house that fabled redwood deck and tub.