Archive of articles - December 1999, page 2

Macro-economy 1999: Now and then

Slovak Companies: Key dates

June 22- Mysterious sale of a 45.9% stake in Nafta Gbely to American giant Cinergy.September 22 - Shareholders meeting at eastern Slovak steel maker VSŽ confirms Gabriel Eichler as president and upholds the management's restructuring policy.

Schuster memoirs anger government

Slovak President Rudolf Schuster is again in trouble with ruling coalition politicians, this time for writing a book of recent memoirs scheduled to be released December 21. The book, called 'A Return to High Politics,' describes negotiations in September 1998 on the formation of the ruling coalition and the alleged attempt of three coalition parties to keep the Hungarian party out of government.Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda, when presented with a draft of the book, recommended that Schuster not publish it, calling it "a very unfortunate step." Deputy Prime Minister Pavol Hamžík, currently chairman of governmental Party of Civic Understanding (SOP) that Schuster founded in 1998, said the book offers readers "a one-sided view which doesn't correspond to reality."

Slovak companies

The year 1999 was a year for the financial stabilisation of many Slovak companies. After the excesses of some companies during the Vladimír Mečiar era, notably the spendthrift ways of steelmaker VSŽ, these companies were forced to adopt strict measures which hurt their production figures and investments. Some shipping and trading companies suffered losses due to Kosovo crisis in the first half of the year.The oil refinery Slovnaft in March 1999 hired the investment bank Salomon Smith Barney to help the refinery find an investor. In June, Company President Slavomír Hatina declared that Slovnaft would welcome an investor from central Europe. The most probable candidate for the future partner is the Austrian OMV refinery.

Hell makes believers of beer drinkers

Forget fire and brimstone and fears of damnation, for the experience of Hell may not be all that bad. That is, if it's Slovakia's Hell beer of which you speak.Hell beer has been pleasing the palates of beer drinkers in central Slovakia since 1473, and a recent partnership with exporter Weldon Walshe EEDC - to form Hell-UK Limited - now means that tipplers in England can get a taste of the underworld. Based on the solid Slovak-United Kingdom relationship, Hell's influence may soon reach far beyond the borders of Europe.

Letter to the Editor: Hillary article out to impress

QUOTES OF THE YEAR

"Do we Slovaks want [the Hungarians] to return... and teach us the Lord's Prayer in Hungarian? No way! We will jump into our tanks, and we will go and flatten Budapest... We will fight, fight for our land, we will fight for every square metre. We won't give even a square centimetre to those Hungarian assholes... Oh, and pardon us. We Slovaks are all racists. And for that reason I say - my brothers, we still have our armaments factories and we still know how to make tanks. Very good tanks..."Ján Slota, chairman of the Slovak National Party (SNS), at a party rally on March 5.

Slovaks paid better than stats show

At the turn of the 20th century, Slovak citizens may not be as well-paid as they were in 1989, but they may also be a lot better-off than they believe.According to economic results for the third quarter of 1999 released in early December by the Slovak Statistics Office, real wages declined from July to September by 6% from the same period in 1998. People's falling purchasing power was reflected in the fact that household consumption was down 1.4% in the same period after a growth of 1.1% and 1.5% in the first two quarters of the year.Despite the gloomy figures, economic analysts said that people had not been as badly affected by the year's price hikes and economic 'austerity packages' as had been feared in January.

Macro-economy 1999: Key dates

January 7 - First austerity package is approved by the government to restore fiscal discipline, reduce budgetary expenditures and increase revenues.May 31 - Second austerity package approved by government raises value added tax, imposes an import surcharge and deregulates prices in an effort to increase state revenues.

Foreign Direct Investment

Despite the fact that in 1999 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Slovakia was lower than last year, several major international companies launched sizable investments while many foreign firms already operating in the country poured additional resources into increasing their output.Still, foreign investment came far below expectations, amounting to 5.9 billion Slovak crowns ($150 million) in the first half of 1999, 1.7 billion crowns less than in the same period of last year and a fraction of the $500 million that former Economy Minister Ľudovít Černák set as a goal for 1999.

Slovakia extended EU invitation

As a Christmas gift, the invitation to Slovakia to begin negotiations on entry to the European Union at an EU summit in Helsinki on December 11 left only one thing to be desired - a concrete date at which Slovakia might expect to become a member of the Union.The assembled heads of state of the 15 EU member countries - known collectively as the European Council - invited Slovakia, along with Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia and Malta to begin entry negotiations with the EU, but said the date at which each country might join the group would depend on how quickly the prospective members could prepare for accession.Preparation for EU entry, in turn, is a matter of how quickly each country can fulfill the 29 'chapters' of the acquis communautaire, a body of legal and adminstrative standards common to EU countries.

EC report crowning achievement of 1999

In a year featuring the murder of a former Economy Minister, the first-ever direct election of a Slovak President, the passage of a historic Minority Language Law and the trial of the country's top mafia boss, political analysts say one event stands out above the rest: the decision of the European Union on December 11 to invite Slovakia to begin entry negotiations."The decision to enlarge the European Union by including the countries of the former communist bloc was the most important decision since the end of the World War II," said Ľuboš Kubín, a political scientist at the Slovak Academy of Sciences. "For Slovakia, the official invitation to begin entry negotiations was the key event in 1999. Our country now has a chance to become part of a civilized circle of European countries."

Rapid pace of legislation hurts quality

The government of Mikulaš Dzurinda has over the last year quickly put into effect many needed laws for the economic transformation of the country that the former government of Vladimír Mečiar had left on the shelf. Though analysts have applauded the pace of reform, however, they have expressed doubts about the quality of the new legislation.Because many crucial economic laws are passed in accelerated legislative proceedings in parliament, little discussion or profound consideration of the effects of each bill is possible. As a result, badly framed laws often need to be revised to counter their unforeseen effects on the economy. The constant need to repair approved legislation is also creating a back-log, delaying the passage of important bills such as the bankruptcy law.

Letter to the Editor: Mečiar had no right to split Czechoslovakia

Diplomats hit high gear for Helsinki

As Slovakia geared up to receive a verdict on its EU membership plans in Helsinki on December 11, the country's officials were leaving nothing to chance, engaging in a last minute flurry of diplomatic visits and exchanges designed to cement support among EU member nations.Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda paid a December 3 visit to Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres and Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio. Portugal holds the EU Presidency for the first half of the year 2000, and if the Council of Europe decides in Helsinki to begin EU membership talks with Slovakia, as is widely expected, Portugal's leadership will be crucial in deciding how soon these entry talks begin.Following the meeting with Guterres, Dzurinda declared that "today, in Lisbon, our diplomatic activities leading up to Helsinki reached their peak."

Slovak Hockey Extraliga

Real wages in Slovakia continue on downward slide

Regional growth now jurisdiction of Construction Min.

Letter to the Editor: No more Mečiar sweetheart stories