Robert Šimončič, general director of the Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency (SARIO) (source: Courtesy of SARIO)
Foreign investments continue to flow into Slovakia, one of the latest big successes being the decision by the carmarker Volvo to build its €1.2 billion e-car production plant in the east of the country. But this example also proves that Slovakia needs better promotion abroad, as it wasn’t even on the original longlist of potential localities.
While Slovakia has a nicely prepared branding package, it is used insufficiently, says Robert Šimončič, general director of the Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency (SARIO).
“We have ammunition, but we need to fire it,” he adds. The Slovak Spectator spoke with Šimončič about the increase in foreign investments flowing to Slovakia after the pandemic, and whether the war in Ukraine has put investors off investing in eastern Slovakia.
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How many investment projects is SARIO working on?
We are working on 58 projects totalling a potential almost €10 billion of investment. If completed, they may create as many as 20,000 jobs, and we’re only talking here about direct ones. A high-quality investment project also leads to secondary jobs, too.
For example, in the automotive sector this means a ratio as high as 1:4. It increases in terms of the number of projects, but what’s more important is that their size, or rather, robustness, is growing. This is good news as this is one indicator that these are technologically very advanced projects and that the added value they bring in is high.
Last year, we got 31 projects totalling about €1.9 billion in investment which envisage the creation of 7,500 jobs. Actually, we have seen an increase in investments after the pandemic.
What share of all investment projects have higher added value?
