Archive of articles - October 2000

Dalai Lama given cold shoulder

Everywhere he has gone in the world, Tibetan spiritual leader the 14th Dalai Lama has been received by top political and religious leaders. But during his October 14-16 visit to Slovakia, he was snubbed by the country's top executive and legislative officials, who not only elected not to meet him, but also refused to explain why.The Dalai Lama, winner of the Nobel peace prize and hailed as one of the central figures in the global campaign for human rights, has visited 47 countries. He has met several times with US President Bill Clinton, and also with French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan gave him an audience in 1998, as did Pope John Paul II.

Roadshows to buttress future government FDI strategies

As part of what it has described as 'a new set of tools' for attracting FDI, the government's agency for foreign investment, SARIO, has put a new focus on investment roadshows and conferences.US Ambassador to Slovakia Carl Spielvogel announced earlier this month that a series of investment roadshows would be held across the US next year, aimed specifically at bringing potential American investors into close contact with Slovak government officials. To be held next February and attended by Deputy Prime Minister for the Economy Ivan Mikloš, the roadshows will, the ambassador believes, be a chance for investors to discuss and learn more about the business climate in Slovakia.

Conferences getting academics talking

It took a few minutes to explain to world famous economist Jeffrey Sachs of Harvard University that he was sitting too close to the camera feed, but once he had grasped the problem and moved back, there he was - properly in focus and live by satellite from stateside, taking part in an October 12-13 Bratislava conference entitled "Western Influences on Central and Eastern European Transitions"."It's the new face of Slovakia," remarked conference co-organiser Grigorij Mesežnikov, president of the Bratislava-based thinktank Institute for Public Affairs (IVO).Sachs, director of the Center for International Development at Harvard, can be considered a 'new' face in that he is one of a growing number of high-profile academics and statesmen who have been attracted to conferences in, on or about Slovakia since 1998 national elections. The fact that such conferences are being held far more frequently now than during the former Meeiar government is also evidence of the new and more tractable face Slovakia is presenting to the world.

Business Briefs

VSŽ shareholders approve entry of US SteelSLK board of directors dismisses management

Slovakia wooing BMW plant

German automotive giant BMW is scouring the central European region for a location for a proposed production plant, and Slovakia is putting its best face forward to secure the contract. If won, the deal would be the third largest foreign investment in the country's history.Government representatives have said that the investment would strengthen the economy and quell problems with unemployment, currently hovering just below 20%.Alan Sitár, advisor to the prime minister for foreign investment in Slovakia, said: "This is one of the most crucial potential investments that Slovakia has had a chance to attract. Its importance can be compared to that of Volkswagen's investment [in 1992] or US Steel in the [Košice steel firm] VSŽ transaction - it's that kind of large scale we are talking about."

This Week

Slovakia's trade fairs: separating the sheep from the goats

Following a boom of trade fairs and exhibitions after the fall of communism in 1989, Slovakia, like many other former communist bloc countries, has experienced a gradual stabilisation in the range and number of fairs across the country and is now, experts and organisers have said, in a period of weeding out the best events from the worst.While the number of fairs and exhibitions organised in Slovakia reached a peak in 1996 when the exhibition calendar had over 250 events, the number in 1999 dropped to 176 and fell again to 150 in 2000.

Snubbing the Dalai Lama: The ties that bind

The decision of Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda and Parliamentary Speaker Jozef Migaš not to receive the Dalai Lama last week was so ridiculous that it deserved to be explained. But since reasons are not forthcoming from these two men, we're going to have to come up with a few theories of our own.The first theory is that 'trade interests' - specifically a contract awarded to a company with a personal link to a bank that regularly wins 'protection' from Migaš - were at the root of such base behaviour. SES Tlmaee, a power engineering company which established a considerable reputation during the 1970s and 1980s by helping build nuclear plants around the world, signed a contract in late 1999 with Czech firm Škoda Plzen to help reconstruct a thermal energy plant in Shen Tou, a facility in northern China. The contract is worth a total of $250 million, of which SES Tlmaee will receive about $100 million.

SOP offers position to TV boss Rusko

Slovak media baron Pavol Rusko has decided to go into politics. The majority owner of the most popular television station in the country, the private TV Markíza, looks ready to accept an offer of a top post with one of the parties of the ruling coalition - the Party of Civic Understanding (SOP).Rusko was offered the vice-chairmanship of the SOP by Deputy Prime Minister for Integration and SOP boss Pavol Hamžík. While he has not made a final decision, and will take until Christmas to make up his mind, the offer alone was enough to fuel speculation that the ambitious Rusko would not long be satisfied with playing second fiddle to Hamžík.The man himself did not go to great lengths to defuse speculation. "Today, I haven't the least reason to set my eyes on the chairmanship," he said in an interview with the Sme daily paper. "I really don't think it would be appropriate to enter the party as chairman. Number two is sufficient."

Letters to the editor

Bring back borovieka- sodden DanglarCommunism not forgiven by allMoric speaks views of too many SlovaksWorld needs more Slovak films on video

Review: Packed Kelt pub now serving stout and superb meals

Good food sometimes crops up in the strangest places, such as a dark and dirty pub or the guy on the street selling chicken who, it turns out, actually knows how to cook. It reminds me of some otherwise dingy upstate New York watering holes, where they always seem to have the hottest, greasiest, and tastiest chicken wings around.In the back of the tangled-metal jungle of Bratislava's Kelt pub, by night a shadowy lair of dancing yuppies, there is a kitchen churning out fantastic meals - some of them hot, some of them greasy, all of them tasty. Surprise number two are the prices, which are lower than almost anything of comparable quality in the Bratislava Old Town.Much of Kelt's food is patterned after American cuisine. And although it doesn't always hit the target, it usually hits the spot. The sauce for the Buffalo chicken wings, for instance, neither spicy nor cayenne pepper based, is not what you'd find in Buffalo. But the chicken is crispy, the cheese is blue, and the sauce (whatever it's made from) works in its own right, especially when doused with Tabasco.

Slovak Jews suing Germany for redress

Just days before a scheduled visit to Slovakia by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, a Berlin court agreed that it would hear the case of Slovak Jews suing Germany for World War II compensation. The unprecedented case was filed on behalf of Slovak Holocaust survivors who feel ignored by Germany's decision to negotiate directly with Jews from the Czech Republic, Poland, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, but not Slovakia.The Ústredný zväz židovských náboženských obcí (Central Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Slovakia) filed the suit against Germany on August 11, seeking return of the 200 million crowns originally paid to the Third Reich by the Slovak government in 1942 for the deportation of nearly 60,000 Slovak Jews to concentration camps. Earlier this month, a regional Berlin court set March 28, 2001 as the deadline for the case to begin.

Greens laud plans for steam-gas plant

A massive 9.8 billion crown [$200 million] investment into a steam-gas plant in Slovakia has environmentalists smiling about the future of energy generation. Co-financed by Germany's Siemens and the Swiss company Advantage Power, the power station will not only be one of the biggest foreign direct investments into Slovakia, but could pave the way to cheaper electricity prices and an alternative to nuclear power.Situated near the western Slovak village of Malženice, just 60 kilometres from Bratislava, the plant, expected to produce three billion kilowatt hours of energy per year - approximately 10% of the country's annual electricity consumption - will compete as an energy source with state monopoly Slovenské elektrárne (SE). Construction work on the plant is slated to begin next year, with the power facility going online by the end of 2003.

Ratings agencies cautious on upgrade

Ratings agencies Moody's and Standard & Poor's have said that they will not raise Slovakia's rating to investment grade before the end of the year, citing political instability as a bar to upping their assessment of Slovakia.The news on the ratings - which affect the cost of state credit from abroad and investor confidence in a country - came as a blow to the government's chief economic ministers, Finance Minister Brigita Schmögnerová and Deputy Prime Minister for the Economy Ivan Mikloš. Both had said they were confident the agencies would lift the ratings before year-end following improving macroeconomic outlooks and the country's September invitation to join the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Danube travel fair offers window on Slovak tourism woes

One of the American tour operators visiting the Danube fair (Dunajská burza) in Bratislava last week asked representatives of travel agencies offering cruises down the Danube river about the quality of additional trips on offer, such as bicycle rides along the Danube. "How many bicycle service stations do you have on these routes, and how many gears would you advise our clients to have to be able to bike these routes without difficulties," she asked peremptorily.Representatives from Slovak travel agencies could only stare back, realising how difficult the task of fulfilling such demands from partner operators abroad would be. "In Slovakia, we could only dream about the services which they are asking for," said Michal Ševeík, general director of the tourism section at the Ministry of Economy.

Banking Briefs: New challenge of asset management

The Slovak banking sector is heading towards consolidation. The main engine will be improved efficiency. If we look at the figures in the paragraph below, we can see that the Slovak banking sector had the worst cost/income ratio from V4 countries in 1998.Avg. cost/income ratio of regional banking sectors in 1998: Estonia 48%, Lithuania 81%, Czech Republic 61% Hungary 86%, Poland 54%, Slovakia 96%.The Slovak data mean that on every dollar of income there were 96 cents of expenses. This unbearable situation was caused by inefficient management and the high costs of classified loans in the portfolios of major state banks. Although restructuring eased the burden of non-performing loans, a serious increase in efficiency will only occur after privatisation, when new foreign shareholders will transfer necessary management know-how.

Italian flair leavening dogged Slovaks

A car with Italian plates pulls over to the curb in the Bratislava Old Town in front of Ján, a 25 year-old pedestrian. An Italian couple in their 40's leap from the car and ply the young man with questions, presumably in search of directions.After fruitlessly attempting to communicate with the couple in Slovak, English - even Turkish - Ján gives up, and the animated couple jump back into their auto in a blur and speed off. Bemused by their boldness, Ján smiles as the car speeds away. "Italians are definitely not shy," he says. "They'll just drive into Bratislava, jump out of their cars and start speaking to anyone in Italian."

Communications Tech: ATM networking tech explained

When listening to IT experts it can get confusing when the term ATM is used. It may be used in every other sentence during talks or discussions on video-conferencing, interactive presentations, distance learning, medical imaging, workflow tasks, CAD/CAM, LAN internetworking, disaster recovery or service internetworking. Surely they aren't talking about cashpoints, so what else is hidden behind these three letters?In the past, separate networks and platforms supported each application: for example, Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTN) used voice switches for voice applications, X.25 and Frame Relay networks for packet data transmission, Internet networks for packet data transmissions using routers, and cable networks for video transmission. ATM technology provides an integrated solution to meet all networking needs. By using a unified ATM platform, customers can use a common switching platform with an integrated high-speed transmission facility for all voice, data and video applications.

News Briefs

Maria-Valeria bridge building officially begunHZDS and SNS fail to agree on cooperationSchuster returns to Slovakia after final surgery in AustriaCharges mount against former spy-boss LexaDubliner Irish Pub murder trial begun