Illustrative stock photo (source: SME)
The country also reported a slight increase in the latest edition of the report, published annually by the World Economic Forum (WEF), when it went up from 78th to 75th place. Current results confirmed the positive trends and moved Slovakia to the first half of the competitiveness list. Slovakia, however, still remains the third worst evaluated nation in the European Union. Only Croatia and Greece placed worse, the Business Alliance of Slovakia (PAS) wrote in the press release.
“The overall evaluation of Slovakia partly improved thanks to some positively perceived changes and party thanks to worse placement of other countries,” said Peter Kremský, project manager of PAS, a partner institution of WEF.
Entrepreneurs expect, for example, a reduction of time necessary for launching a business or the government’s support in using new technologies via the digitalisation of public administration. In the corporate sphere, Slovakia’s competitiveness is strengthened by companies improving their production processes and introducing innovations. The survey respondents also appreciated the progress in infrastructure construction, with only 4.6 percent of them considering it problem.
On the other hand, the perception of corruption worsened compared to last year. Moreover, it was listed as the biggest problematic factor hindering doing business in Slovakia, as chosen by 18 percent of entrepreneurs.
“The slight improvement is visible on the whole, but 67th place in the world is not a very favourable advert for the country which has an been EU member for more than 10 years,” Kremský said.
Slovakia lags behind other developed countries in several areas, like perceiving nepotism, strengthening the courts’ independence, enforcing the law, fighting corruption, and reducing the administrative burden for businesses, he added.
