Economy Minister Ľudovít Černák appointed Pavol Kinceš as the new general director of the state-run natural gas distribution monopoly, the SPP, on December 1. Černák dismissed SPP director and former HZDS deputy Ján Ducký from the post on November 5.
Kinceš promised to improve transparency in SPP operations and to focus on personnel and financial stabilization of the company.
Kinceš (43), a graduate of Economic University in Bratislava, worked as an advisor to the deputy premier for economy from 1991 to 1992, as a member of the Presidium of the National Property Fund (the national privatization agency) in 1994, as a vice-president of the MESA 10 think-tank from 1992 to 1998 and as an economic adviser to the current premier, Mikuláš Dzurinda.
This year will be the most successful in the history of SPP. According to preliminary data issued in late October, its profit in the first nine months of this year was 9.5 billion Sk ($263 million), which is equal to the profit earned for the whole of 1997.
