JOZEF Konkoly, mayor of the village of Kechnec, situated on the line connecting Košice and Hungary, thanked the leadership of the Indian rubber-making giant Apollo Tyres for their offer earlier this year. The company had intended to produce tyres in the local industrial park, with an investment of €150 million and about 1,500 new jobs, but the mayor said he had reason enough to discontinue negotiations. The Kechnec locality was recommended to the Indians by the SARIO government agency, which is suggesting the park in Šaľa as a substitute site, the Sme daily wrote.
"To sum up - we are in a situation that we do not need investors at any rate," Mayor Konkoly says. He thinks this investment would be a huge burden for their environment, and the operation of the tyre-producing factory would pollute the air to such an extent that it would cause the annoyance not only of inhabitants, but also of well established investors.
Moreover, the Indians wanted the land from the village for just a symbolic price. "If they had come, no one else could have invested in Kechnec, as they would have occupied 50 hectares, of which the factory itself would be just a small part," the mayor said.
The Indian project meant to employ mainly people with a lower education.
