FRIDAY'S meeting between Economics Minister Pavol Rusko and the owners of the land intended for the planned Kia factory near Žilina made no progress, representatives of the petition committee said.
The landowners insist on their plots being reclassified from agricultural land to building plots, which will only be possible to finalise in late August after the issue of a relevant territorial decision, according to Rusko. That would, however, delay construction work on the new plant. Moreover, the cost of building the plant may increase by hundreds of millions of crowns, the news wire TASR wrote.
According to Rusko, the owners do not have an official expert opinion that would justify their demands for more than the maximum of Sk148 (€3.7) per square metre offered by the government.
The Žilina investing company that is buying the land from the government has managed to settle 70-80 percent of the entire 220 hectare area for Kia Motors and Hyundai Mobis. According to its project manager Stanislav Vinc, the company has already started preparing documents for the potential expropriation of the remaining plots.
According to The Financial Times daily, Kia leaders have already warned the Slovak government that it still has time to move its new factory to another country.
