Archive of articles - September 2003, page 2

Laws to make banking sector more open

ALONG with liberalizing the banking sector, the revision to the banking act is intended to make the Slovak banking environment a more flexible, but also a safer space.The revision, tailored by the Finance Ministry, will oblige the banking houses to provide more information on their financial products. It also softens the terms for granting bank licenses and simplifies the process of selecting bank managers - it will no longer be necessary for them to document their professional proficiency and credibility.

Johnny Depp: The pirate of Hollywood

DIRECTOR Gore Verbinski has followed up the surprising box office success of his overrated The Ring with this, one of the summer's highest grossing Hollywood films. This is not to say that The Ring is a terrible film; it's just that its horror relies far too heavily on that time-honoured Hollywood tradition of showing the endangered heroine running and screaming from her attacker.

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Victims of the Columbia shuttle disaster honoured

ON THE FIRST day of the Slovakia-USA Davis Cup match in Bratislava, September 19, Slovak representatives of the Ferdinand Martinenga Association, and the Pan-European Union, paid tribute to the victims of the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster.During the break between the sessions, they presented a photograph of the astronauts, framed in a traditional Slovak tin-smith's enclosing, to the American ambassador to Slovakia, Ronald Weiser, in memory of the victims of the tragedy.

Cartoon

Slovak bank clients have grown up

IT WAS not so long ago that a Slovak bank client had access to only a current bank account, a passbook, or a special socialist bank product - an advantageous loan to young married couples.Today, together with the developing Slovak bank sector, clients are becoming more educated and demanding. They are better oriented in financial issues and they want sophisticated banking products and services.

EU revises aid to banks

THE STATE assisted the troubled Slovak banking sector in recovering and heading towards sustainable economic growth. However, the European Union, which has recently started to review the whole curing process, might dislike the state's helping hand to the Slovak banks.The Finance Ministry rejected speculations that the state assistance for restructuring the banking sector was not in line with regulations and stressed even more the importance of healing the country's banks.

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Slovaks distrustful of politicians

Books that tell a family's life

THE STEINER Antiquarian bookstore, on Ventúrska, in which Bratislava tourists often peer while walking the streets of the Old Town's centre, belongs to Selma Steinerová and Dagmar Ložeková. The former is from the fourth generation of Steiners, a Jewish family who has been living in Bratislava, and who has owned the shop for almost 150 years. Together with her cousin Lydia, they are the only two who have stayed in the city.

Network of planned cycle-arteries in Slovakia

The diversity of Slovakia makes the country a fitting place for cycling, as well as mountain biking. While Slovakia's south offers bicycle tours via its roads, its north attracts lovers of mountain trails. The idea to develop organised cycle tourism came to the country after its borders opened in 1989. Before then, organised tourism in Slovakia was largely limited to hiking.

Healthy banks escape red numbers

THE HEALTHY bank environment has also been reflected in midyear results reported by the significant players of the Slovak banking sector, who have been successfully avoiding slipping into the red.Slovakia's largest commercial bank, Slovenská sporiteľňa (SLSP), provided 24,950 consumer loans, totaling Sk2.7 billion (€65.2 million), over the first half of 2003. SLSP reached a net consolidated profit of Sk1.4 billion (€33.9 million) over H1 2003, benefiting mainly in the field of non-interest income, which grew more than 69 percent year-on-year to Sk1.6 billion (€38.5 million).

Three Bratislava institutions close

THE BRATISLAVA Culture and Leisure Park (PKO), the Bratislava Information Service Centre (BIS), and the City Culture Centre (MKS) will cease to exist at the beginning of next year, reported the daily Pravda."Contributory organizations are obliged to care about their entrusted property; enlarge, sustain, protect, and valorise it.

Quo vadis, Slovakia?

WITH THE international conference on EU's constitutional arrangements only days ahead, Slovak policymakers are trying to agree on what institutions and policies the future EU should have. Some critics say it is too little, too late.Following pressure from the parliament, the government decided on September 16 to let the legislative body debate Slovakia's position on the draft constitutional treaty before finalising its strategy for the EU intergovernmental conference (IGC), which will start on October 4 in Italy.

Ailing insurers oppose cure by junction

THE HEALTH Ministry plans to medicate the problems of the two biggest Slovak insurance houses, Spoločná zdravotná poisťovňa (SZP) and Všeobecná zdravotná poisťovňa (VšZP), which have been in court over the debts of SZP towards a special payment re-distribution pool, by merging the insurers.SZP's debt towards the pool climbed to Sk2.4 billion (€58.34 million) between 2000 and 2002, when the insurer refused to transfer part of the compulsory insurance premiums collected from its clients to the fund.

SARIO projects to bring 24,700 jobs

Slovaks feel media is biased

Jazz it up in the east of Slovakia

BEFORE Bratislava Jazz Days roll on in, in the middle of October, jazz fans can savour live jazz at the opposite end of the country, in the eastern city of Košice.On October 3 and 4, eight international jazz bands will come to perform at the 9th International Jazz Festival, in Košice. Half of them will be from the Netherlands.

Van der Linden paints butterfly

THE FIRST European politician to join the project Paint Your Own Butterfly, organised by the Miro Gallery, in the eastern Slovak town of Snina, was head of the European Commission's delegation to Slovakia, Erik van der Linden.