Archive of articles - June 1999, page 4

Steelmaker VSŽ to be given new lease on life

After a weekend of hectic government negotiations, eastern Slovak steelmaker VSŽ emerged with fresh hope that a standstill agreement would finally be signed with all nine of its creditor banks, allowing the firm to take a loan and restructure. The company also emerged from the weekend with a new Chairman of its Board of Directors, chosen by the board during its June 6 meeting with Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda.Last November, VSŽ defaulted on a $35 million syndicated loan arranged by Merrill Lynch. Since then, the company has been constantly threatened by bankruptcy, and has been frantically been trying to shed itself of non-core activities like banking, media and a soccer team.

Drug distributor to continue supplying pharmacies

Pieniny National Park offers great rafting

Tucked away to the northeast of the Tatras and snuggled up against Poland, Slovakia's most compact national park is easily overlooked. In Pieniny, the river Dunajec has cut out a canyon with 80-meter-high rock walls, a watery corridor that forms the border between Slovakia and Poland. The Three Crowns mountain dominates the view to the Polish side, and cradles Červený Kláštor (the Red Monastery) in its rocky arms.14th century Carthusian monks, who hailed from the present-day Yugoslav territory, were given the plot of land by a Levoča nobleman to establish a community for contemplative thought and study.

Press distributor PNS returned to FNM minus newsstands

Slovakia touts EU credentials with bond

Slovakia launched its first euro-denominated bond on June 9, touting a turnaround economy and the pro-European Union policies of its new reform-minded government.Slovakia, which hopes to rejoin a group of frontrunners for European Union membership by the end of the year, issued 350 million euros ($366.3 million) of five-year bonds, larger than the 300 million euro deal expected.As Slovakia's first foray into international markets since losing investment grade status last year, the bond was seen as a key test of sentiment towards the pro-Western, pro-reform coalition government of Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda which took power last October.

Around Slovakia

Čarnogurský sky dives for the seventh timeMafia boss shotSlota wants Slovaks to "wake-up"Four die in stolen bus joy-rideLexa smokes 50 cigarettes a day, gains 6 kilograms

Community Grapevine

NOS Open Society Foundation hosts summer seminar

Improving the government's image: Dressing mutton as lamb

Two representatives from the American group National Democratic Institute (NDI) dropped by the offices of The Slovak Spectator last week looking for suggestions on how to improve communication between the government and its various audiences - the media, the electorate, the third sector and so on. NDI is preparing a series of seminars on communication for Slovak parliamentarians starting in September this year.NDI arrives at a propitious moment. The current government desperately needs help improving its image, selling its policies and plugging its embarrassing leaks of information.

US football slowly wins popularity

It was a scene familiar to many American football fans - the tiny stadium packed with a rowdy crowd, the opposing teams yelling at each other and butting helmets as they revved up for the big game, cheerleaders prancing, beer being drunk and spilt, high-energy music and chants of "go, offence, go!" echoing around the field. The only strange part of this football contest was that it was being played in Slovakia, at Bratislava's Štadión Istrochemu.Slovakia, Americans are often told, is a country devoted to its hockey and soccer - a nation that dismisses traditional American sports like baseball and football as boring and confusing. But while many Slovaks remain uninspired by baseball, organisers of a six year-old American football league say their game is beginning to catch on with players and fans alike. Team owners add that with better coaching and more lucrative sponsorship, the game could become a national favourite.

Interior Ministry confirms Jaroslav S. has been released from custody

Bratislava Business Centre to open in fall

Austerity package brakes fiscal deficit

Sighs of relief from financial institutions and analysts greeted the Slovak government's new package of economic austerity measures announced on May 31. The measures, which include an import surcharge, a hike in the basic tax rate and price deregulation, were designed mainly to raise an additional 18 to 20 billion Slovak crowns in revenue for the state budget."It's the best news that Slovak crown assets have received all year," said Ján Tóth, a senior analyst at ING Barings investment bank. "The package includes some pretty bold measures to cut the fiscal deficit, and although I don't like the import surcharge and I think they might have done more to cut expenditures, I'm very relieved to see the contents of the measures."

Media Council fines STV for breaching election moratorium

Refugees ponder moving on

Stankovac, Macedonia: Ramadan Zeneli is still wearing the lavender sweatpants that were gashed one month ago when a masked paramilitary soldier put a knife to his leg and said he would kill him if he did not hand over 1000 Deutsch marks. Now, sitting on the plastic tarpaulin which lines the bottom of a hangar-size tent at Stankovac refugee camp in Macedonia, the 45-year-old Kosovar Albanian is one of the lucky ones. All 18 of his immediate family members are with him; the only losses are the grandparents of his daughter-in-law, who, too old to move quickly, were burned along with their family home.

Community Grapevine

3rd International Slovak Antique Car Rally: 500 Slovak Kilometres

Slovak Sporiteľňa posts 88.682 million Sk net in 1998

Reconstruction of historic Hotel Carlton begins

After months of delay in obtaining construction permits, securing bank loans and negotiating the future of eleven of Bratislava's oldest trees, the reconstruction of Bratislava's historic Hotel Carlton has finally begun. Bratcarl a.s., a Slovak firm with Belgian shareholders, started its makeover of the national landmark on May 3 and expects to finish the project, at a cost of over 1.5 billion Slovak crowns ($30 million), by April 2001 at the latest."The Carlton Hotel is a symbol of Bratislava," said project architect Vladimír Vršanský. "That's difficult to understand today because everything is now destroyed. But between World Wars I and II, it was very well-known, not only in Bratislava and Czechoslovakia, but in all of central Europe. It was the best hotel."

Foreign investors say buying real estate still too difficult in Slovakia

As foreign investors applaud the results of Slovakia's May 29 presidential election, the nation's stock markets are experiencing something of a revival. The official SAX stock market index jumped from around 75 points to just under 80 in three days at the beginning of June as portfolio investors celebrated the defeat of controversial presidential candidate Vladimír Mečiar.Despite the relief generated by the presidential victory of Rudolf Schuster, however, direct foreign investors say that concrete changes to Slovakia's investment environment are needed before the country starts to attract significant FDI. "Maybe the country isn't losing investors any more, but they're not getting any new foreign investors," said Rudolf Nagy, the general secretary of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce in Bratislava.

Real estate - with prices dropping and rents freed, it's a buyer's market

Now is the time to buy real estate in Slovakia, say real estate professionals. Offer is currently far greater than demand on the market, and with the nation's economy in a precarious state, those selling real estate are finding they have to accept prices for their properties that are well below what they were even a year ago."For buyers this is a good time," said Igor Fedoroňko, the statutory representative of Bratislava Realitná Kancelária. "There is not enough money on the market, and with offer so much greater than demand, we have pages and pages of listings."