Archive of articles - April 2001
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The price of privatisation
Chemical industry chiefs have warned that existing jobs may be lost if plans to hike gas prices for chemical firms as of May 1 are implemented.Exempted from a February 1 set of gas hikes for industry, chemical firms are now facing the prospect of an 11% rise in gas costs after a recent Finance Ministry change to price legislation. The move allows soon-to-be privatised gas firm Slovenský plynárenský priemysel (SPP) to put chemicals producers on an equal price footing with other industry customers.Jozef Kollár, president of the Association of Chemical and Pharmaceuticals Producers (ZCFP) and general director of the Duslo Šaľa industrial chemicals firm, said chemical producers would fight the rises, and questioned their economic justification.
Letters to the editor
How expatriated Slovaks can get citizenshipLooking forward to Slovak pub culture
Top Pick: Action Art exhibition 1965 - 1989
Action Art is a unique artistic movement which documents the process of creating art rather than the final product itself. A new Action Art exhibition currently running at the Slovak National Gallery features photographs of Slovak Action artists from 1965 to 1989, when the movement served as a weapon in fighting the ideology of the Communist regime.The exhibition's aim is to highlight an art form which under Communism existed only outside the spotlight of the popularly accepted art scene filling galleries and art-institutes.In the latter half of the 1960s, Action Art was new and untraditional and aimed at freeing art from political influence. It did this by focusing on the creation of an object, a series of connecting events, or just an artist's performance. Such works are documented in photographs, film-records, librettos' texts or video-records.
Fraudulent Honorary Consul has ministry checking papers
Last spring, The Slovak Spectator knocked on the door of the Cameroon Honorary Consul to Slovakia hoping for an interview for an article profiling Bratislava's African community. Angola had a Bratislava embassy, but Cameroon's consulate was more conveniently located - a large Cameroonian emblem marked its place on Bratislava's main square.A Slovak woman answered the door, invited the reporter into a plush office and explained that the honorary consul, Eduard Jahchan, was out of the country and could not be reached - not by phone, fax or e-mail. Vice-Consul Emile Noel Kindji was also absent.
Placing his bet: Mikloš takes gamble with Dzurinda
"I am not a small boy," said Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda.As a conversation starter, this was an arresting statement, rather like a bold if unorthodox chess opening. It was followed by several unanswerable assertions."I have a nose," the PM continued, touching a forefinger to the organ in question, "and two..." He tapped his nostrils eloquently. "And I think you like to make problems."
Student centre opens doors in Prešov
In her first year at Prešov University, Jana (not her real name) lived in the Prešov university student dormitory. In her second year, she didn't score enough "points" in the school's rating system, and was shut out. Lacking money for private accommodation, she got hold of a mattress and spent the school year sleeping on the floor of a friend's dorm room. This year, she did what other students do: paid a bribe for a bed.By western standards, university life in Slovakia is difficult. Money is short, dormitory space is tight, books are hard to find, and facilities are often run down or out of date.But students in Prešov now have help. In November last year, Slovakia's first Študentské Servisné Centrum (Student Services Centre) opened thanks to funding from the European Union's Tempus programme.
Slovakia's growth - how can it be put in higher gear?
My previous column was devoted to the greatest structural economic problem Slovakia currently faces - high unemployment. What can Slovakia do to avoid being in first place in unemployment tables for the region?In the long run, Slovakia can either cut real wages or increase its long-run 'potential' growth. Since cutting wages rarely makes any government too popular, the second alternative is more attractive. Hence, the question then appears to be: What can Slovakia do to increase its potential growth?Economic theory suggests that in order to increase growth, one should increase either inputs (both physical capital and labour) and/or productivity. As for labour, an increase in the number of people working alone would not get you a higher living standard (which is usually proxied by GDP per capita).
Consul system fine, say appointees and ministry
Honorary consuls represent the interest of countries who cannot afford, or do not have sufficient reason, to open full-scale embassies in certain foreign countries. Consuls, who are not paid, say their main benefit is prestige."I see it at as a great honour, a recognition of my work up to this point in my life," said businessman Jozef Majský, one of Slovakia's richest men and the Honorary Consul for Cyprus.Majský said, however, that the he and other consuls provided an important service to the countries they represent. "Smaller countries cannot afford to have embassies in every country around the world. Through Honorary Consuls, they are represented by capable and influential people in a way that would not be possible otherwise," he said.
"Belgium has to react" to fleeing Roma
Two weeks after most European Union (EU) countries dropped visa requirements for travelling Slovaks, Belgium announced that it would re-impose the travel restrictions "as soon as possible". Slovak Interior Minister Ladislav Pittner said that 99 Slovak Roma had applied for asylum in Belgium since the visas were dropped April 10."The number of asylum seekers increased immediately," said Belgian government representative Johan Vande Lanotta April 24 for the Slovak daily paper Pravda. "It's obvious that the increase has been caused by the fact that the visas were discontinued. Every time we have dropped visas [for Slovakia] the numbers of asylum seekers has increased.
New bank deal gives hope to small firms
Describing small and medium-size enterprises as "the backbone of any economy", the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and German bank IKB announced a deal April 23 which may help Slovakia's beleaguered small business sector.Under an agreement signed during the European Bank's annual conference in London, the bank will take on the risk for 70 million euros of a 200 million euro credit fund at IKB for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across central Europe.The move will free up credit at the bank and increase funding for German companies operating in the central European region. The European Bank (EBRD) and IKB - one of the largest commercial providers of long-term investment finance to small and medium-sized enterprises in Germany - say it will indirectly bring about the creation of new jobs through increased business with local SMEs.
Community Corner
Goethe Institute exhibitionsAustrian Culture Centre violin concert and exhibitionsFrench Institute exhibitionAustrian Culture Centre exhibition in PrešovBratislava Town GallerySpanish exhibition at DanubianaBahá'í Community
Stock market threatened by VSŽ sales
Capital market dealers have said that US Steel plans to purchase all available VSŽ shares will significantly weaken genuine trading on an already under-capitalised and poorly performing market.Paling in comparison to the stock markets of its regional neighbours (the Prague stock exchange has a capitalisation volume 10 times higher than Bratislava's bourse), Slovak steel-maker VSŽ is one of just eight companies (see chart) included on the 'listed' capital market which drives the small amount of share trading in the country.Considered one of the most important trades by dealers, US Steel's intention to become the dominant shareholder in VSŽ will leave few remaining attractive issues if the plans go through, traders say. The American company acquired the core steel activities of VSŽ last October and founded US Steel Košice, holding a current 25% stake in VSŽ.
Review: Small Time Crooks: Allen film more rich than poor
Ray Winkler has a simple scheme: buy a lot near a bank and tunnel into its vault. His wife Frenchy will keep cover by selling cookies. Complications arise when the cookie business accidentally blossoms into a multimillion dollar franchise, turning Ray and Frenchy's penniless, happy marriage into extravagant matrimonial hell.That's the low-down on Small Time Crooks, a Woody Allen comedy with plenty of laughs and a straight message: it's not lusting after money that destroys love, but getting it.Alan plays Ray, an ex-con who has never been much of a crook, nor had much luck going straight. When he met Frenchy, he was in the rackets and she was an exotic dancer. Now he washes dishes and she does nails. They are poor, but happy, the sort of couple that express their love more with cheap shots than with kisses.
Around Slovakia
Soldier apologises to President SchusterAllegedly drunk father chained to bed by sonCzechoslovak shepherd dogs kill child
Legislation lifts sell-off hopes
The government April 19 approved legislation which it said would allow the sell-offs of state utilities, including the lucrative gas giant Slovenský plynárenský priemysel (SPP), to advance more quickly.Following the cabinet's decision, cadastral, land, agriculture and forest, and environmental offices will all have to give priority to work connected with privatisation projects, specifically the settlement of property transfers for state enterprises.Cabinet said that the need to settle property matters in many privatisation projects was essential to the sales' completion, especially in the energy sector. According to an official government statement after the approval, power distribution companies alone have property yet to be transferred amounting to 190 million crowns.
Justice Minister attacks debt attitudes
Justice Minister Ján Čarnogurský has attacked the business sector for what he called its lax attitude to repaying debts.Speaking at a press conference April 19, the minister praised the progress made so far in ridding Slovakia of bankrupt companies burdening the economy, but said that the business community was not keeping pace with progress made by the judiciary.Legislation has been tightened and relevant authorities have stepped up efforts to force debtors to pay up, he said, resulting in completed bankruptcy cases rising from 224 in 1997 to 2,400 by the end of 2000. But, many businessmen still feel they can flout standard payment discipline, Čarnogurský added.
Want to be an Honorary Consul?
What you need: An official request from a foreign country naming you as their choice for Honorary Consul. Approval from the Slovak Foreign Ministry. (Since 1999, the Ministry of Interior and other government bodies have investigated candidates and issued recommendations to the foreign ministry on whether or not the candidate should be approved.)What you get: An identification card confirming that you are an Honorary Consul. A licence plate which allows you to cross borders without delay, and which may, although unofficially, hold sway over some police and border guards. Prestige.
Kralowetz lured east by US giant
Fulfilling a promise it made to raise employment levels and bring foreign investment to eastern Slovakia, US Steel - one of the largest foreign investors in the country - has lured Slovak-Luxembourg transport company Kralowetz to Košice.The American firm says that Kralowetz's 10 million euro investment, which came because of a contract to supply US Steel, is the first fruit of its drive to promote eastern Slovakia as a lucrative FDI (foreign direct investment) destination. The investment will generate 250 new jobs over two years and help alleviate the 26% unemployment rate in the region.Founded after its acquisition of the VSŽ steel mill in autumn last year, US Steel Košice employs over 15,000 workers and uses some of the most advanced steel-production technologies in central and eastern Europe.
Ivan Mikloš takes political plunge
Deputy Prime Minister Ivan Mikloš, a free-market advocate whose name has become synonymous with reform of Slovakia's economy, has cast in his lot with Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda's non-parliamentary SDKÚ party. Political analysts have doubted whether the popular reformer Mikloš will be able to halt the SDKÚ's slide in the polls.In a decision announced April 19, Mikloš said he had abandoned his status as an indepedent politician and joined the SDKÚ because he wanted "to continue in politics".The SDKÚ was launched as a non-parliamentary party in February 2000 after Dzurinda, head of the five-member Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDK), opted to strike out on his own rather than fight for authority within the SDK, the strongest of Slovakia's ruling coalition parties. In forming the SDKÚ, he drew the support of five cabinet members, with the notable exception of Mikloš.
Women push case for political quota system
The introduction of a quota setting the minimum representation of women in parliament at 30% was the main topic of discussion at the April 24 Equal Opportunities Conference in Bratislava, organised by the Professional Women non-governmental organisation."Slovak women are underrepresented in politics," said Dagmar Šimúnková, head of Professional Women. "[Therefore], we will work hard to achieve the introduction of this quota in order to secure the placement of more female members of parliament (MPs)."Arguing in favour of the quota, conference participants used Slovak and European statistics to illustrate their point.
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