Archive of articles - September 2000

Review: Dutch Painters exhibited at newly opened Danubiana

Danubiana, a new gallery in Bratislava, has gotten many Slovak artists thinking. With the completion of Danubiana, funded in large part by a gift (reportedly in excess of one million dollars) from Dutch art admirer Gerard Meulensteen, they are imagining all the wonderful things they too could do with that kind of money.Danubiana's first exhibition, Dutch Painters (1950 - 2000), will have to compete for the attention of its audiences with architect Peter Žalman's sublime building housing it. This brand-new oval modern masterpiece of glass and steel sits on a peninsula extending into a wide stretch of the Danube (with waves lapping at the grounds near the building it might be the closest thing to a seaside in Slovakia). Colourful and asymmetrical, Danubiana appears as artificial as the gray, communist housing blocks in the northern distance, but in stark contrast to them, gives nature a run for her money in the beauty department.

This Week

A company guide to financing expansion

There are many pitfalls to be overcome if you wish to successfully expand your business. One critical factor is the method adopted for financing expansion, for example through an acquisition.A company's basic financing structure typically consists of a combination of working capital, term debt and shareholder's equity.The method of financing expansion is effectively an investment decision, which is driven by a company's strategic focus.

Weak euro blamed for sliding crown

As the United States rides high on a wave of massive economic growth, European countries have been forced to come to terms with diminishing values of their currencies against the US dollar. In Slovakia a stable but weak Slovak crown has been further hampered by its ties to the European Union's euro - its reference currency - itself a victim of the dollar's strength.For crown-earning businesses and individuals in Slovakia with monetary ties to America, the situation is frustrating.Only one year ago, one US dollar bought between 40 and 41 Slovak crowns. In March 2000, a dollar was worth just more than 43 crowns, a number which grew to between 44 and 45 just three months later. Presently, the US currency buys just over 50 Slovak crowns.

Venues

Schuster accuses coalition of writing him off prematurely

President Rudolf Schuster may have recovered in body from his summer bout with a perforated colon and pneumonia, but in spirit he remains bitter at the government's response to his illness.In an interview published in the German daily paper Süddeutsche Zeitung on September 14, Schuster accused the coalition of having taken over his presidential powers prematurely on July 3, for all that he had been transported in a coma to Innsbruck, Austria on June 28 and had been unable to carry out his duties. The aim of the government, he theorised, had been to take away his power to call a controversial referendum on early parliamentary elections that might end the government's term in office.

BDT's Meško still fighting for audiences and sponsors

After clearing what he described as "a series of hurdles" in being selected for the Edinburgh art festival last month, Slovak-American dance impresario Bob Meško was then faced with a more immediate challenge. With his company's small stage unfinished and unsafe, he was forced to cancel the opening performance. But the line waiting outside included two important Scottish critics, busy professionals unlikely to return the following day. No critics, no reviews. No reviews, no chance of drawing an audience in a festival with over 1,500 performances a day.So Meško ushered in the crowd - including the critics - offered them programmes, told them their tickets would be good for any other performance that week, and gave an impromptu half-hour talk - on modern dance, on BDT, on Slovakia.

Slovakia's first multi-medal winner

After only the first week of the 2000 Sydney Olympics Games, independent Slovakia laid claim to its most successful Olympic showing ever, and - for the first time in its short national history - boasted a multi-medal winner in the person of swimming sensation Martina Moravcová.The 24 year-old talk of the Slovak Republic won her first medal - a silver in the 100 metre butterfly - when she finished second (at 57.97 seconds) behind Dutch smimmer Inge de Bruijn (56.61). The time set a Slovak national record, the 172nd such mark of Moravcová's illustrious career."I have never experienced such euphoria," she said after her first race. "And I've never cried so much as when I saw the results on the board."But more was to come for Moravcová, who stood weeping on the winner's podium as she waved to her fans in the stands. Her second race, a seesaw battle in the 200 metre freestyle, brought another silver, this time just a hair behind eventual winner and home-town favourite Susie O'Neill of Australia.

Doctors hunger strike to back reforms

Armed with angry words, fruit juice and hectolitres of mineral water, a group of about 20 Slovak doctors launched a hunger strike in the shadows of the Slovak parliament building on September 12 to demand better working conditions and higher wages.For four days, the white-clad doctors refused to eat and distributed leaflets to passers-by during the daytime, sleeping on ground pads in their khaki military tent at night. As members of the Slovak Doctors' Trade Union Association (LOZ), they said that they saw no other way to achieve change.

Business Briefs

Schmögnerová says gas prices will not rise 45%Mid-year public sector deficit at 1.2 billion crownsTruckers back down on protest threatGDP grows 1.7% year-on-year in 1H00Transpetrol privatisation approved by cabinet

Communications Tech: SLA's a guarantee of good service

Service Level Agreements (SLAs) mark another milestone in a campaign over recent years that has given rise to new product launches and important infrastructure developments by several carriers and global service providers. They are the ultimate step towards meeting customer expectations in today's highly competitive environment.Over the last few years, SLAs have assumed an increasingly important role in the telecommunications marketplace. In the days when most telecom providers were monopolies, SLAs tended to be lengthy, legalistic documents elaborating what the provider could not, rather than could, be held responsible for. Today, by contrast, SLAs set specific parameters for the quality of service.

Letters to the editor

Some are trying to solve gypsy problemsLets hear more about gypsy solutions

Another EFSAL loan barrier falls as MoF begins IMF talks

The government moved a step nearer to securing vital finance for the banking and corporate sector September 13 when Finance Minister Brigita Schmögnerová and World Bank (WB) Vice-President for External Relations Mats Karlsson met for talks on the provision of a $400 million EFSAL (Enterprise and Financial Sector Adjustment Loan) credit to Slovakia.The meeting came only a day after cabinet gave the final go-ahead to begin talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a controversial part of the WB's loan conditions - Slovakia's taking a staff-monitoring programme from the IMF. The IMF mission currently monitors Slovakia's economic results only bi-annually, but the implementation of the programme would mean at least two extra monitoring sessions per year.

IRB bank sale pushed back as international buyers yawn

Investors have snubbed the sale of Investičná a rozvojová banka (IRB), forcing a date for registering preliminary interest in the bank to be put back by one month.The government has insisted that despite the setback, in which only one party registered official interest in a 69% stake in IRB, the sale of the bank remains on track, as does the banking sector's overall revitalisation process."Yes, one party expressed interest [by the initial September 1 date], as we said, but the process is going on and we have put back the date [to the end of October] at the request of other parties who have expressed their continued interest," Juraj Renčko, head of the finance ministry's coordination unit for restructuring and privatisation of banks, told The Slovak Spectator September 19.

Politicos still abusing tired 'Hungarian card'

With a community approximately 600,000 strong that is clustered in the the south of the country, ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia are the largest minority group in the nation. But just how well the minority gets along with its Slavic compatriots has always been difficult to say, given the various emotions the 'Hungarian question' arouses among politicians and ordinary citizens.Judging by statements made over the years by some of the nation's MPs, co-existence between the Hungarian minority and local Slovaks is a fragile thing indeed. Far-right Slovak politicians now claim, for example, that unofficial rules have been established in the Slovak south banning non-Hungarian speakers from holding employment. Hungarian politicians counter that even their Slovak government partners often ignore Hungarian interests, and that the "Hungarian card" is regularly exploited on both sides of parliament to appeal to Slovak nationalist sentiments.

ST in monopoly fracas again

A heated battle has again broken out between the Association of Private Internet providers (API) and telecoms monopoly Slovenské telekomunikácie (Slovak Telecom - ST). API has angrily accused ST of abusing its monopoly status by installing a "frequency filter" [limiting the speed at which data can be transferred] on the fixed line used by the Slovak Agriculture University in Nitra, prohibiting the school's Internet access."By installing the filter, ST reduced the capabilities of the line to less than 1% of its previous capacity in an effort to force the institution into ordering the new Analogue Plus [an Internet service provided by ST] - which costs three times as much as the original line - or an even more expensive digital network," wrote API chairman of the board Ján Vigaš in an official statement on September 12.

Banking Briefs

In the last two months, the majority of local banks released their half year financial results. The most positive news is that Slovenská sporiteľňa (SLSP) and Všeobecná úverová banka (VÚB) have risen out of red numbers, mainly due to cuts in operational costs and the releasing of provisions. This was of course a direct effect of bank restructuring, which is finally over.The state budget felt the cost of bank restructuring for the first time in July this year, when interest of 6.3 billion crowns on state-guaranteed loans came due. The government intends to finance the whole bank restructuring process with a loan from the World Bank, and may issue special 10 to 15-year bonds as well. However, the costs of restructuring should ultimately be repaid in the form of better results in the corporate and banking sectors.The strong profits shown by Tatra banka were due to the weakness of other banks, and will likely fall as the health of the sector improves.

Rumours of ST purchase snag quashed

Representatives at Deutsche Telecom have dismissed an attempt to block their purchase of a 51% share in the Slovak telecoms firm Slovenské telekomunikácie (ST) as "nonsense".On September 16 Ivan Matušík, a representative of the firm Herold Tele Media, said that a Bratislava district court had blocked the sale to the German telecoms giant based on an earlier claim filed by Matušík for ownership of ST. The court later denied Matušík's statement.Matušík's earlier suit had sprung out of a 1998 contract dispute between ST and Herold over the production of a Slovak 'yellow pages'.

Community Calendar

International Women's Club in BratislavaHarvest Time exhibit at French Institute