Archive of articles - April 2000, page 4

Slovak Communists feel marginalised

In light of the uproar surrounding the Bratislava General Prosecutor charges of high treason against Vasil Biľak, the former secretary general of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, The Slovak Spectator approached the chairman of the current Slovak Communist Party (KSS) Jozef Ševc on April 12 for his party's reaction. Ševc, who is also Biľak's son-in-law, presides over the party, established in 1992 as a 'new' communist party and currently boasting some 22,000 members.The Slovak Spectator (TSS): Less than three years after the fall of the communist regime, you decided to revive communist ideals by establishing the KSS. Do you see yourself as followers of the former communists?

Slovak Lunch Spots

KrymVegetarian RestaurantMalí FrantiškániSlovenská ReštauráciaSlovenská ReštauráciaF Klub

Quote of the week

Balog: Firms need fewer workers, more marketing

The General Director of the Agency for Industrial Development and Revitalisation (AIDR) Karol Balog has travelled far and wide to spread the word on what Slovak companies have to offer. Fresh off the plane from what he called a mission to 'twist the arms of a few businessmen' in Italy, he knows there is a long road ahead for the corporate sector, one in which the government, banks and businesses themselves will have to tread together if the Slovak economy is to prosper.The Slovak Spectator (TSS): From what I understand you just returned from Italy, where you said that you were trying to 'twist the arms of some businessmen' to get investment. How did that go?Karol Balog (KB): Italy is ranked third in trade with Slovakia but only about 10th place as far as investment. They have invested very very little here.

Corporate Briefs

German bank to invest into Prvá Komunálna BankaSlovak and German publishers close to mergerVíno Nitra wins silver medal at Italian wine exhibitionSlovnaft, VÚB shares strengthen on BSE

Dzurinda gears up for 2002 battle with Mečiar

Hoping to gain enough support to give the HZDS and there popular leader Vladimír Mečiar a decent fight in the 2002 national elections, the new party established by current PM Mikuláš Dzurinda began recruiting and registering members on April 4. Known as the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKŮ), six government ministers and 21 members of parliament have already signed on."We want to build a strong political party with clear priorities towards a liberal economy, the transformation of public administration, and a strong drive towards the European Union and NATO," said Peter Miššík, an SDKŮ founder and the head of the party's Nitra Region Office.Party representatives said that they wanted to build up a strong and united pro-reform political party with 20% popular support.

Review: The Beach: good book, bad movie

They've done it a million times - the 'creative geniuses' in Hollywood are adept at transforming a solid, entertaining book into a two-hour waste of time. The latest such bastardisation of a novel comes in the form of the big-budget film The Beach, starring Titanic pretty-boy Leonardo DiCaprio.Adapted from the Alex Garland novel by the same name, the movie version parallels little of the story from the book, yet still follows Richard (DiCaprio) in his search for self-awareness through the adventure of travelling through Thailand. Richard finds the well-worn backpacker scene to be less than inspiring, until he stumbles upon a map which shows the way to a supposed utopian island located off the Thailand coast.

Review: When I was and was not at Home

Mišo Suchý, a Slovak immigrant to the United States, is a photographer by trade, not a writer. Yet he is at times as nimble with words as with a camera: "Capitalism and communism: one is covered in gold, the other is made of iron, but both are cheeks of the same ass. The problem arises when you find yourself somewhere in between."Suchý found himself in that precarious position of an immigrant coming from behind the former 'Iron Curtain' in 1988 when, at 22, he followed his future wife from Czechoslovakia to the United States. Keď som bol a nebol doma (When I Was and Was Not at Home), is a collection of photographs from his time caught in the crack between East and West.

Slovak women working two shifts

Silvia Matejová is a well-dressed professional woman; she's also a 36-year-old mother of four. If you met Silvia on the street, you'd likely imagine her as a career-driven woman with no time to take care of her children, and guess that she hired people to do the housework for her.But for Silvia, her family is more important than her career. Like most other Slovak mothers, the weight of the household chores and child-raising demands rests almost completely upon her shoulders. Somehow Silvia manages to juggle both work and family responsibilities - she even thrives under the pressure, adding that she would like to have another baby.

Mečiar under siege: State must fight for higher ground

Vladimír Mečiar has kept the promise he made in 1999 to create a "circus" if police ever tried to bring him in for questioning on the 1995 kidnapping of Michal Kováč Jr. After Interior Ministry investigators tried to collar Mečiar last week, the three-time Slovak prime minister holed up in his Elektra pension in western Slovakia's Trenčianské Teplice, and vowed to remain barricaded "until the current government decides to respect the law and the decisions of the Constitutional Court."A circus the opposition HZDS party chairman has indeed created, with police investigators waving subpoenas at him, Interior Minister Ladislav Pittner swearing he will bring Mečiar to court "in handcuffs if necessary," and Mečiar himself inviting citizens to join him in acts of civil disobedience.

Reform rewarded in Eurobond issue

Despite the success of the recent Slovak government issue of Eurobonds, domestic and foreign analysts are warning the government that it must keep delivering on its fiscal policies to keep what has, over the last 12 months, become a growing interest in Slovakia from investors."The government has to deliver to the domestic population to keep the external issues sustainable. It cannot go on raising money from foreign sources forever," said Jaroslav Vitazka, assistant portfolio manager at Schroders in London.Bearing a 7.35% coupon, the Eurobond saw demand at twice the actual volume of the issue with the spread falling from the expected 220 to 240 basis points above 10 year German Bunds to 217. The figures provided a favourable comparison with last year's first Slovak issue of Eurobonds. The 350 million euro issue of last June carried with it a 4.2% interest yield, almost twice that of this year.

Italian Cuisine

Pizzeria Saranda-RistoranteSpaghetti & CompanyLa Dolce VitaLa TrattoriaSole MioLa Mamma

Community Calendar

American Chamber of Commerce - Internship FairHash Run WeekendInternational Women's Club Bratislava

Review: The Beatles still live in Slovakia

It was with a great deal of skepticism that I went to see the Slovak musical about The Beatles on April 3. The very idea of anyone attempting to imitate the legendary British group was bad enough, but to present the boys by making a musical about them seemed even worse - John, Paul, George and Ringo cast in the same light as John Travolta and Olivia Newton John seemed entirely pointless, laughable and even a bit offensive.But while the musical itself was just as inane as expected, the band was surprisingly good. It actually appeared that John Lennon and the rest of The Beatles had risen from the dead, rescuing from total disaster what was otherwise a silly replication of the world famous Liverpool-lads.

Around Slovakia

Slovakia to seek compensation for Tisa disasterIce Hockey finals pit Slovan and Zvolen

Processors, processors...

"Three Cocks on the Dunghill," "Intel Encharmed by E-business", "4.5 GHz by IBM," "Wintel Plans for Forthcoming Years", "64-bit Heart Called Itanium," "Transmeta versus Elbrus", "Blue Chips Attack!" etc, etc. Those are just a few titles from professional journals somehow connected with the heart of every computer - the processor.There are several big-time players in this field: Intel with Pentium processors, IBM (Power3-II), AMD (K6-2), Via (Cyrix III) and HP (PA-RISC). Although the market has been looking over its shoulder for cheaper and the sometimes more powerful Cyrix and K6 processors made by other competitors, Intel still remains the real king on the enterprise PC market.

Top Pick: International English Drama Festival at Divadlo West, April 13-15.

English-speaking expats and Slovaks alike have a rare opportunity to see plays in English in Bratislava this week from April 13 till 15. The Bratislava English Language Theatre Society (Belts), an organisation of former-English students at Comenius University in Bratislava, is organising the 3rd International Drama Festival in collaboration with the British Council and David Lyscom, the British Ambassador to Slovakia.Opening night of the festival will feature a Belts and a kickoff speech given by Lyscom. Other festival highlights include performances by drama groups from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary.

Domestic firms struggling to deliver in Slovakia

In Slovakia shipping and transport has taken off in the last decade, with local shippers opening businesses aimed not only at serving the domestic market, but also looking to tackle head-on the large international firms that have moved onto the market.However, on top of having to compete with some of the largest players on the global market, many small local businesses have also had to absorb recent price hikes for fuel, electricity and rents for office space, increases that have endangered their very existence."According to an analysis carried out by MESA 10 [a Bratislava-based economic think-tank] this year, the increase in prices amounts to some 30% compared to last year," said František Pinte, general director of the NAD 820 shipping and transport company.

Getting Permission to Build.

Commercial developments represent a considerable risk to the developer/investor so it is not surprising that a great deal of time is spent tweaking the design to extract maximum value for money. The investor also requires maximum return in the minimum time so the period from feasibility to opening should be as short as possible - any delay to the completion of the building costs money in terms of lost rental or sales revenue. Therefore, any strategy for saving time is of great value.Here is a brief summary of the development process: