Archive of articles - November 2000, page 4

Career concept: age and flexibility

Talking about people and their working lives, we usually look at what type of job the person has, in what organisation they work, how the job is attained, and what the particular job rewards are. What we also look at is the movement of the individual within the organisation over the period of their working relationship.In this regard we start to discuss people's careers and judge the success of individuals by their careers - more specifically, we judge people's success by their upward movement within the company they work for, and more importantly the speed of this movement.What we should also take into consideration, though, is the set of work-related experiences the person acquires gradually over a longer period of time. This tends to be very important as the work environment changes and influences organisations.

Hague forum takes new tack

"If you look at The Netherlands you will see that about 85% of the corporate sector is made up of SMEs - they are the powerhouse of any economy. They should not be ignored at the expense of big companies. The government should not just pay attention to large firms."Henk Soeters, Dutch Ambassador to Slovakia, believes that the Slovak government has to stay aware of the importance to overall economic health of brownfield investment into small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).Government policy on investment has often been seen to be geared towards larger firms and greenfield, rather than brownfield, investment.

Referendum no guage of voter sentiment

Unaccompanied and visibly exhausted - as if he himself believed the odds against his referendum were as daunting as polls indicated - former Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar began a stump speech in support of the approaching November 11 vote on early elections before a simmering group of supporters in the Žilina city council hall on a windy November 4 afternoon.Urged on by the restless crowd of 500, Mečiar overcame his apparent weariness to assure his captive, predominantly elderly audience that the current government of Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda would soon be ousted from power.

Rusyn patriots questioning purpose of linguistic revival

ZBUDSKÁ BELA: A stroke has slowed Štefan Bunganič down in his golden years. The retired chemist, mathematician and scholar still gets around, but his limbs are not entirely obedient. They seem heavy when he changes position, and jiggle when he walks. But his spirit is bouyant, and his resolve remains fixed on one last, long, final project."I want to write a book on the philology [structure] of the Rusyn [Ruthenian] language," he says, sitting in his modest home in the small eastern Slovak village of Zbudská bela and patting a worn notebook containing thousands of words he has been collecting for over 30 years. "And I'm going to stick around long enough to finish it."Bunganič's sense of Rusyn indentity has survived political upheavals, border changes and assimilation pressures [see sidebar], and now, near the end of his long life, under a government supporting rather than supressing ethnic expression, he is intent on contributing to the birth of his mother tongue as a written language.

Sachs: Incentive parity vital

Seven years' experience in Slovakia has turned German producer of car clutches Sachs, with operations based in Trnava, into an expert on the country's business climate. The Slovak Spectator met with Peter Doll, general manager of the company's sole central European plant, to hear his views on how much the climate has changed over that time and how Sachs views its investment.The Slovak Spectator (TSS): How satisfied is Sachs with its Slovak investment?Peter Doll (PD): This is the only factory that we have in central Europe. We have invested about 25 million Deutschmarks here, increased the number of employees to 650 people and helped build up another company with 200 employees. On top of that, Sachs is going to grow twofold in the next three to five years. These figures show that we are satisfied in Slovakia.

SCP Ružomberok sale model for brownfield investments

As a case-study of successful brownfield investment in Slovakia, Austrian company Neusiedler AG's acquisition of a 50% stake in the central Slovak pulp and paper producer Severoslovenské celulózky a papierne (SCP) Ružomberok in June this year is one the country's brightest.Despite a few problems in the course of negotiating the investment with Slovak shareholders, Neusiedler representatives say that the deal was well worth the small hassles, SCP being one of Slovakia's most viable companies.

Expropriation: Who pulls the strings?

Government approval of a 2.7 billion crown ($54 million) industrial park just outside Bratislava for German car giant VW on October 31 seems to spell the beginning of the end for a problem that has plagued foreign investors - finding suitable land sites in Slovakia.Many investors will be thankful that some of the legal nightmares of trying to acquire land for their investment from a number of different owners could be over, with the government making encouraging sounds about construction of many more similar sites following Slovakia's first at Lozorno.Industrial parks are a boon to investors because land can be bought from one owner - the state - with infrastructure already connected and no 'time bombs' awaiting in delayed ownership claims.

ST intranet takes workers into e-sphere

Ladislav Petényi's slightly stiff demeanour softens as he eases his chair up to the monitor to demonstrate Slovak Telecom's new cutting-edge computer system. The system project manager at Slovak Telecom, Petényi accesses the database like a child anxiously opening a box to find a favourite toy.But just as quickly as it arrived, Petényi's slight smile gives way to a frown. "Access denied," he says flatly. "My access code has been changed."More fine-tuning is on the way for Slovak Telecom's IT network, which began its third and final stage of implementation in the first week of November. One of the most significant implications of the new system, which is expected to be fully functional by the beginning of 2001, will be its impact on human resource management at the state fixed line telecoms monopoly. ST is Slovakia's third largest employer, with about 15,000 workers.

PKB bank looking for disciplined municipal customers

Dexia Kommunalkredit Holding, a joint venture established at the beginning of this year between the French-Belgian financial group Dexia and Kommunal Kredit Austria Holding is the latest newcomer to the Slovak banking market. The group bought into Prvá komunálna banka (PKB) of Žilina in May 2000, and currently holds a 78% stake in the mid-sized Slovak financial house [registered capital 1.002 billion crowns ($40 million), total assets 20 billion crowns ($800 million) in September]Francis Teynier, PKB's vice-president of the board of directors, spoke to The Slovak Spectator on November 3 about the Slovak banking market and PKB's place in it.

Polus Center opens to bullish forecast

Bratislava Polus City Center, the first multiple shopping complex of its kind in Slovakia will finally open on November 22. Situated in Bratislava's Nové Mesto (New Town) district, Bratislava city administration officials have said that the centre's opening will herald a new era for shopping in Slovakia."The Polus City Center is the first example of a standard retail centre in Bratislava, and can lure more investment into the city," said Milan Vajda, spokesman for Bratislava Old Town. He added that the project will have an inevitable impact for his district of the city. "It is the first project of its kind finished in Bratislava and it is important for us, because it shows that great projects like these are possible."

UNO: Time to invest is now

Family-owned supermarket chain UNO Potraviny is beginning an active search for an investor and says that now is the right time for someone to buy into the market in Slovakia. Despite the proliferation of hypermarkets on the market, the importance of convenient neighbourhood supermarkets is undiminished, the company says, and it is still possible now to acquire first class locations at reasonable prices.The Slovak Spectator sat down with UNO's managing director Peter Weiss October 31 to hear what he had to say about conditions for potential partners.

News Briefs

Parliament slams door on mob boss ČernákNew Bratislava TV station runs out of moneySchmögnerová wants to run for SDĽ chairEighteen cars per day disappear in SlovakiaSlovak consulate buried by Ukraine visa requests

Community Corner

International Women's Club Christmas BazaarWelcome UnderstandingGo-Kart RacingAustrian Embassy PresentationFrench Institute Literature EveningGoethe Institute ExhibitionsDutch comic-opera

BMW winces as SARIO slips up

Government representatives have denied accusations from their own honorary consul in Baden-Würtenberg that they have botched what would have been the third largest investment in the history of Slovakia after releasing information about an unofficial meeting with German car giant BMW.The company has been considering several Slovak regions, along with other sites in neighbouring central European states, as a possible location for a $440 million investment into a new auto construction plant.The government had called for a meeting with BMW on October 24, in the hope of gaining key information that would help it better prepare the Slovak regions bidding for the investment. But following the release of information to local media that the meeting had taken place, Roland Kissling, Slovakia's honorary consul to the south-German region of Baden-Würtenberg, said there was a threat that BMW would now not come to Slovakia.

Hope alive for 10 year holidays

Debate on a controversial 10-year tax holiday for foreign investors continues, as Slovak investment professionals lobby to have the measure approved, and government officials - who nixed the bill in an October 18 cabinet meeting - concede they would have few objections if parliament overturned the government decision.In its effort to attract more FDI and to make Slovakia's investment incentives more compatible with those offered by neighbouring countries, the government recently approved a new investment package lowering the size of investment needed to qualify for five year tax holidays, scrapping previous legislation that at least 60% of production be exported and offering further incentives to companies settling in regions with over 10% unemployment.

Review: Tea house offering a change from standard beer joints

Letter to the editor

Poor Dalai Lama coverage

This Week

News Briefs

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