Archive of articles - September 2002

Devín investigation finished

IMF advises Slovakia to return to pension drawing board

Dzurinda parties go ahead with cabinet

Market economy spells death of DIY mechanics

FOR MECHANIC Juraj Jakabovič, life is more work and less play than ever given the orders that keep streaming in to his Bratislava auto repair shop.Jakabovič and his two sons now run a firm employing 14 people. Unlike shortly after the 1989 revolution, when he founded a tiny family company making its living from small repairs and selling auto-parts, Jakubovič now spends most of his time with managerial duties rather than blue-collar work.The family's Bayern Center auto service company, as hundreds of others like it, has been driven forward by the social changes that followed the collapse of the communist regime. While before 1989 Slovaks tended to repair their own cars rather than hand them to mechanics in state-owned repair shops, increasing wealth, changing social patterns and ever more complex cars have given Jakabovič as much business as he can handle.

Elections flash green light to investors

IN AN IMMEDIATE sign of foreign confidence in Slovakia under its emerging right-wing government, the Slovak crown shot past previous strengths against the euro and US dollar currencies, with market experts predicting that the outcome of September elections would boost the Slovak economy and draw more foreign investment.After four years under a wide-spectrum coalition which was often blamed for retreating from tough economic reforms, results from the September 20-21 poll suggested that four ideologically similar right-wing parties would form the next government and complete the country's emergence from its pre-1989 command economy.Although the would-be coalition will enjoy only a two-seat majority in the 150-seat parliament, its programme coherence has raised optimism among investors and foreign Slovakia specialists that the mixed signals of the past will be replaced by an 'open for business' sign.

Domestic suppliers revving for contracts

AN INFLUX of foreign car companies building plants in Slovakia and across central Europe has given new hope to domestic car part makers aiming to boost turnover through new customers and shareholders.Foreign car industry suppliers have invaded Slovakia over the last two years after the only car maker in the country, Volks-wagen Slovakia, decided to start production of one of its latest models, the off-road vehicle Colorado, exclusively in Slovakia.Since then Volkswagen has attracted dozens of suppliers to industrial parks around its Bratislava production plant. Others have built their own facilities, or merged or created joint ventures with existing Slovak car part makers.

Reader feedback: Poor Lexa

Price of car liability premiums to rise again

WHILE THE recent lifting of a monopoly on third party car liability insurance has brought new players to the Slovak market, motorists are likely to face a major rise in premiums next year.The eight insurance houses which started providing the coverage at the beginning of this year after the Slovenská Poisťovňa (SP) monopoly came to end have already increased prices for 2002 premiums by an average of 20 per cent, and say that rates for optional collision and theft insurance are likely to be raised as well.While five years ago the average liability insurance policy for a passenger car cost less than Sk2,000 ($46), this year motorists had to pay over Sk4,000 ($90), still lower than in western Europe.

Top Pick: Orphans in cargo containers

AROUND 6,000 children in Slovakia do not have a home, even though they're growing up in places called "children's homes" in Slovak.The euphemism, child experts say, reflects the fact that Slovakia is not facing the plight of its orphans head-on."Society is aware of the problem of abandoned children, and the media pay sufficient attention to it, but that doesn't change the situation," says Marek Roháček, chairman of the non-profit association Návrat (Return), which helps to find substitute families for children either abandoned or taken by the state from their natural parents.

Reader feedback: Too pessimistic

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Reader feedback: Dear Don

Stranger than life

IT'S 11:43 on Tuesday, September 17. A swarthy man with dark curls gets off the train at the Bratislava main station. With a carefree step he carries his luggage in one hand and records everything happening around him with a camera in the other.Suddenly his mobile phone rings. "We're waiting for you outside," says a female voice.The caller adds a brief description of what she looks like. In minutes the man has met two women outside the station. Introductions follow, and all three disappear into a nearby café.

Car thieves still one step ahead

POLICE RECORDS show that car theft is only half as common now as it was 10 years ago, and that thieves are now twice as likely to be caught.But don't tell that to Bratislava businessman Ján Benetin, 23, who has experienced five vehicle thefts either personally or in his immediate family in the past several years."The attitude of the police towards me was very positive," said Benetin after the most recent theft. "They came, inspected the site, took us with them in their car and drove us around [to find the stolen vehicle].

Schuster blows down race to form new cabinet

WHILE SLOVAKIA has been urged to have a new government in place quickly to meet European Union and Nato entry deadlines, it is entirely up to President Rudolf Schuster how long the process will take. And according to early signs, the president is in no hurry.Both Nato and the EU have said they would like a government formed as quickly as possible out of September 20-21 elections to give them time to verify whether Slovakia now meets the 'political criteria' of democracy-friendly principles for entry to both bodies."Slovakia wants to be a member of both Nato and the EU, and both these organisations have their timetables," said Onno Simons, counsellor with the European Commission Delegation in Slovakia.

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Greetings, Comrade

IN ONE of the major surprises of 2002 elections, a party of unreformed communists is returning to the Slovak parliament for the first time in the decade-long history of independent Slovakia.Although a political landscape littered with imploding leftist parties had led most analysts to discount die-hard socialists, the Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS) captured 6.32 per cent of the September 20-21 parliamentary vote, even winning one north-eastern district, giving them an 11-seat legislative caucus in the 150-member assembly.Despite the repressive history of the communist experiment in Czechoslovakia and the dissolution of the Comecon trading bloc in 1989, the KSS leadership says that it is a modern, forward-looking leftist party that is looking out for the interests of Slovak citizens.

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