SMALL and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) active in Slovakia do not use their full export potential, according to the Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency (SARIO). To support these activities and encourage SMEs to offer their products and services on the foreign market, SARIO, together with Eximbanka, Google Slovensko, Sberbank Slovensko, Slovak Telekom and Zoznam.sk launched a project called Misia 14 – Made in Slovakia.
The project focuses on SMEs which employ 70 percent of employees in Slovakia and generate about 40 percent of GDP. Many of them stagnate since they only focus on the local market, which has limited consumption. Less than one half of SMEs export their products, reads the analysis of Sberbank Slovensko, as reported by the TASR newswire.
“The problem is not they [the companies] do not have competitive products, and we have high prices,” said Martin Marko from SARIO, as quoted by the SITA newswire, adding that the main problem is SMEs lack information and aspirations.
Within the first phase of the project the businesses will be encouraged to visit the official website Misia14.sk and express their opinions on problems with exports via an online questionnaire. Based on the collected information SARIO will create a package of services for beginner as well as advanced exporters, SITA reported.
SARIO and its partners hope the increased exports might positively affect the creation of Slovakia’s GDP and support employment.
According to the statistics, there were about 16,600 SMEs in 2011 and 2012, which represents 33 percent of GDP, though only 20 percent of them contributed to the country’s exports, SITA wrote.
Source: SITA, TASR
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
