Volkswagen Slovakia intends to build an industrial zone with 1,000 employees in the locality of its Bratislava plant. Folker Weisgerber, chairman of VW Slovakia's Board of Directors, told Finance Minister Brigita Schmögnerová of his company's intentions on July 6, the day on which a new car-body workshop was launched at Volkswagen Slovakia.
The new auto-body workshop will hit full capacity of 300 car bodies per day in two months.
Six months into 1999, Volkswagen reported a net trade surplus of 7 billion Slovak crowns. The figure was 9.3 billion crowns for the whole of 1998. The company currently employs 5,500 people. VW uses 14 direct suppliers from Slovakia. In 1998 Volkswagen Slovakia put out 125,000 cars and its turnover was 58 billion crowns ($1.3 billion).
