BIG foreign companies could reconsider their plans to invest in Slovakia if they do not receive more investment aid from the government, the Hospodárske Noviny daily wrote. The cabinet of Iveta Radičová has postponed a decision whether to award new state aid of €28 million to Galanta-based Samsung, explaining that the company, which has already received aid in the past, does not plan to create any new jobs, the daily reported.
“If Samsung fulfils the agreement from 2005 and establishes a research workplace here, the government will support its activities,” said Radičová, as quoted by Hospodárske Noviny.
Former economy minister Ľubomír Jahnátek agreed with the cabinet decision, saying that he would have done the same.
However representatives of Samsung expressed dissatisfaction and said that without certain advantages the company would consider leaving Slovakia, according to the daily.
Doubt has also been cast over the reported plans of steel producer ThyssenKrupp to establish a plant in eastern Slovakia that would result in up to 1,200 new jobs. The company has postponed its final decision for now, saying that it must reconsider due to the economic crisis, Hospodárske Noviny reported, while writing that the real reason for the postponement was that the company is waiting for a new government to take office as it is not satisfied with the state stimuli currently being offered.
“We offered them 30 percent of the value of the investment, but they want more,” a source who attended the negotiations told the daily, adding that Poland is ready to offer ThyssenKrupp state support of up to 50 percent of its investment.
