Amazon’s returns centre in Sereď is an example of a successful US project in Slovakia. (source: TASR)
While the list of US investments and companies active in Slovakia is not very long, numbering about 90, it include big technological companies like IBM, Dell, AT&T, and the medical company Medline. The Slovak company InoBat and the US company Wildcat Discovery Technologies have also made a joint investment into the R&D of e-car batteries.
“Attracting investments from the electromobility sector is a key prerequisite for the transformation of the automotive industry in Slovakia,” the Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency (SARIO) told The Slovak Spectator.
Nevertheless, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced US investors to reconsider their planned investments and some even had to downsize their workforce in Slovakia.
Hard hit by COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the United States very hard, inflicting a heavy human and economic toll. The abrupt halt in activity to contain the spread of the coronavirus from March onwards has resulted in a 5-percent contraction in the first quarter of 2020 year-on-year, the sharpest drop recorded since 2008, as well as a surge in the unemployment rate, according to the trade credit insurer Coface.
