Archive of articles - December 2007

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Diplomat Lajčák popular in Bosnia

Slovak diplomat Miroslav Lajčák, the High Representative of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, has been named the Personality of 2007 by the most widely-read daily in the Muslim-Croatian part of the country.

President signs highway law

Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič has not stopped the controversial package of one-time special measures to speed up highway construction that parliament passed on December 11. The president signed the bill into law, which includes tools for expropriating the land needed to complete the unfinished road sections for the highway linking the eastern and western parts of the country, according to Sme daily.

Unions toy with going on strike

Industry trade unions are threatening a strike if wages don’t rise 7 percent instead of the companies’ offer of 3.5 percent, the Sme daily wrote.

S.R.M. Building to construct logistics park in Budimir

Bratislava-based company S.R.M. Building announced plans to build a logistics park on an area covering 131,000 square metres in Budimir, eastern Slovakia.

Number of illegal laborers drops

Though the number of people working without a work permit in Slovakia has been dropping, experts are unable to tell whether this means that illegal labour is going legal.

Bratislava goes ice skating again

AFTER years with nowhere to enjoy the tradition of outdoor ice skating in the centre of Bratislava, residents and visitors got a new skating rink just in time for Christmas.

Jana Liptáková

Sereď to gain up to 900 new jobs

By the end of 2009, the Slovak-western town of Sereď should have 750-900 jobs more. Marek Švec of the company Devecom, which runs the Sereď industrial park, told the SITA newswire that in the aforementioned period 12-15 new production lines should be built in the park. He expects that negotiations with the foreign partners who are expected to create about 250 jobs and invest Sk1.2 billion (€35.7 million) in the park should be completed by the end of 2008.

Slovakia to celebrate its 15th anniversary

On January 1, Slovakia will commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of its independence. In 1993, after 75 years of a common state of Slovaks and Czechs, the countries, represented by Václav Klaus on the Czech side and Vladimír Mečiar on the Slovak side, decided that the Czech-Slovak Federal Republic should end, and split the country. The whole process was calm and peaceful.

Slovak economy to be driven by LCD production

Slovakia’s growth this year was supported by cars, but that industry will be replaced by LCD TVs, the Sme daily wrote on December 28. The output of the automotive industry in Slovakia this year was about Sk300 billion (€8.9 billion) and next year producers can count on further growth of about twenty percent. All three automotive industry producers in Slovakia - Volkswagen, Peugeot and KIA - have fulfilled their plans for this year and their aggregate output was approximately 580,000 cars.

Economic sentiment down in December

The Statistics Office data show the economic sentiment indicator in Slovakia going down by 1.8 points to 101.1 points on a month-on-month basis in December of this year. The Statistics Office said the fall was caused by the negative development of the indicator in industry, construction and with services. The economic sentiment indicator was 7.1 percentage points lower in a year-on-year comparison and exceeded the long-term average by 0.6 percentage points, the Slovak Statistics Office was cited as saying by the SITA newswire.

Slovak Telekom fined Sk526 million

The Antitrust Office (PMÚ) fined Slovakia's dominant fixed-line operator Slovak Telekom Sk525.8 million (€15.65 million) for abusing its dominant position on the market. The Antitrust Office ruled that Slovak Telekom set its wholesale and retail prices in an anti-competitive practice called a margin squeeze. PMÚ spokeswoman Alexandra Bernáthová defined a margin squeeze as setting prices to exclude or restrict competition, the SITA newswire wrote.

Slovaks divided over developments in society

As many as 48 percent of Slovaks think society is not heading in the right direction, according to an opinion poll that the Focus agency carried out for the Institute for Public Affairs (IVO) between October 30 and November 6, the TASR newswire wrote.

Advisor will benefit from the biggest privatization

The sale of the lucrative land of state-owned heating company Bratislavská Teplárenská is helping a private advisor to earn money hand over fist, the Pravda daily wrote on December 27. The company is selling land worth Sk1-2 billion close to the new building of the Slovak National Theatre and the bus station. The company has decided that the buyer has to use the services of consultancy company Colliers International for the next ten years during the area’s development. This will guarantee the consultancy company millions of crowns in earnings.

Slovakia enters Schengen zone

At exactly midnight on December 21, Slovak Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák and Roger Weber, the mayor of the Luxembourg town of Schengen, cut away the barrier at the Slovak-Austrian border crossing Bratislava-Berg, the SITA newswire reported. It was a ceremonial celebration of Slovakia’s joining the Schengen zone.

Kronospan calls off Sk3.5 bln. investment in Slovakia

The company Kronospan has given up its plan to expand chipboard production in its plant in Prešov. The company had intended to invest Sk3.5 billion in the plant, however, the Slovak government did not approve tax relief that the company required, said Kronospan representative in central an eastern Europe, Markus Habegger, the SITA newswire reported. According to him, the company is seeking new possibilities while it sees the development of the Prešov group in other productions. He specified that in Zvolen they put into operation the most modern line for chipboard production and are considering setting up a training centre there for the whole company that has subsidiaries in 25 countries worldwide.

Survey shows vineyard accusation a flop for Dzurinda

The story about Prime Minister Robert Fico’s vineyard did not resonate with voters as much as the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) had hoped, according to the Sme daily on December 27.

Slovaks send more than 31 million text messages on Christmas Eve

Two out of the three mobile-phone operators in Slovakia - Orange and T-Mobile - reported handling a total of over 30.09 million text messages (SMSes) for December 24 alone, the Sme daily wrote. The third mobile-phone operator – Telefonica O2, reported 1.1 million text messages sent.

2007 a calm political year for Slovakia

Despite entry into the Schengen zone, Slovakia is not yet a full member of the European Union. This is because the country is still being deprived of one of the fundamental rights on which the Union is built - free movement of labour, political analyst Ivan Štefunko said on Slovak Radio weekly debate show Sobotné Dialógy (Saturday Dialogues) on December 22, the TASR newswire wrote.

Schengen zone celebrated at tri-country border

Celebrations of the Schengen zone entry of nine EU countries culminated on December 22 at the border crossings of three countries - Slovakia, Hungary and Austria.

Kubiš: Slovak-Hungarian relations have always been "peculiar"

The current government, after it came to power in 2006, tried to persuade its partners that its programme was oriented towards good cooperation with its neighbours, Slovak Foreign Affairs Minister Ján Kubiš said in an interview with the TASR newswire.

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