List of author's articles, page 11
Telenor: We see GSM tender decision in a "balanced way"
Founded in 1996, Telenor Slovakia is a subsidiary of Telenor International, a Norwegian telecom and information technology provider. The firm submitted a bid to operate Slovakia's prospective GSM 1800 mobile phone network in an international tender announced in August 1998, but was rejected because, the Telecom Ministry said, they had not provided sufficient documentation before the tender deadline.Are Mathisen, Telenor Slovakia Country Manager, said that his firm had not submitted a bid in the second GSM 1800 tender, announced on January 15, because the new conditions for GSM 1800 operators had been less favorable than those in the first tender.
GSM 1800 licence to be shared by Globtel and EuroTel
Telecom Minister Gabriel Palacka announced on June 15 he would not call a third tender for a 1800 MHz GSM band mobile phone licence after two previous tenders flopped - opening the band for the two current GSM operators, Globtel and Eurotel. The latest tender for the licence, with a deadline of April 15, from which the two current mobile network operators were excluded, failed because the ministry received no bids.The ministry has said that potential applicants were probably deterred by Slovakia's poor economic outlook and the saturation of the Slovak mobile market. However, Are Mathisen, country director for Telenor Slovakia, one of the three companies reported to be interested in the tender, disagreed. Telenor applied for the first GSM 1800 tender in August last year, Mathisen said, but had not bothered to enter the second tender because of its unfavourable conditions, including a minimum purchase price for the license of ten million dollars.
Telenor and LucidLight battle over e-mail 'spam'
Slovakia may soon see its first legal battle over an issue that has blighted western Internet markets for years: unsolicited e-mail, less formally known as "spam."The suit, which has yet to be filed, pits Telenor Slovakia, a subsidiary of the Norwegian IT giant Telenor, against LucidLight, a Slovak company specialising in direct marketing through e-mail and a subscriber of Telenor's service. The former claims that LucidLight was spamming, an activity which could make the provider an international Internet pariah, and which it punished by restricting the plaintiff's access to the Internet. LucidLight says that Telenor broke their contract without justification, and is suing for damages.
Minister fights back in GSM 1800 furore
The second tender to find a third mobile telephone operator for Slovakia dissolved in confusion and recriminations on June 7 when Telecom Minister Gabriel Palacka cancelled the tender commission formed on June 15 to select a winner. The sale of the license to operate a GSM 1800 MHz mobile network was expected to bring over 300 million Slovak crowns ($7 million) into the state budget.Palacka now has the power to decide himself who, if anyone, will be awarded the license to operate on the GSM 1800 frequency in Slovakia. The nation already has two firms, EuroTel and Globtel, active on the Slovak mobile phone market using the GSM 900 frequency.
US football slowly wins popularity
It was a scene familiar to many American football fans - the tiny stadium packed with a rowdy crowd, the opposing teams yelling at each other and butting helmets as they revved up for the big game, cheerleaders prancing, beer being drunk and spilt, high-energy music and chants of "go, offence, go!" echoing around the field. The only strange part of this football contest was that it was being played in Slovakia, at Bratislava's Štadión Istrochemu.Slovakia, Americans are often told, is a country devoted to its hockey and soccer - a nation that dismisses traditional American sports like baseball and football as boring and confusing. But while many Slovaks remain uninspired by baseball, organisers of a six year-old American football league say their game is beginning to catch on with players and fans alike. Team owners add that with better coaching and more lucrative sponsorship, the game could become a national favourite.
Reconstruction of historic Hotel Carlton begins
After months of delay in obtaining construction permits, securing bank loans and negotiating the future of eleven of Bratislava's oldest trees, the reconstruction of Bratislava's historic Hotel Carlton has finally begun. Bratcarl a.s., a Slovak firm with Belgian shareholders, started its makeover of the national landmark on May 3 and expects to finish the project, at a cost of over 1.5 billion Slovak crowns ($30 million), by April 2001 at the latest."The Carlton Hotel is a symbol of Bratislava," said project architect Vladimír Vršanský. "That's difficult to understand today because everything is now destroyed. But between World Wars I and II, it was very well-known, not only in Bratislava and Czechoslovakia, but in all of central Europe. It was the best hotel."
Foreign investors say buying real estate still too difficult in Slovakia
As foreign investors applaud the results of Slovakia's May 29 presidential election, the nation's stock markets are experiencing something of a revival. The official SAX stock market index jumped from around 75 points to just under 80 in three days at the beginning of June as portfolio investors celebrated the defeat of controversial presidential candidate Vladimír Mečiar.Despite the relief generated by the presidential victory of Rudolf Schuster, however, direct foreign investors say that concrete changes to Slovakia's investment environment are needed before the country starts to attract significant FDI. "Maybe the country isn't losing investors any more, but they're not getting any new foreign investors," said Rudolf Nagy, the general secretary of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce in Bratislava.
Kelt: Trendy new pub recalls Bronze Age
Have you been desperately seeking the meeting place of Bratislava 'trendies' where you can select from a beer menu of Kelt, Kelt or Kelt? Or are you looking for a place to groove along with Boy George's greatest hits while sitting under abstract nouveau Celtic shields which harken back to the Bronze Age? If you answer 'yes' to either question, then Bratislava's newest pub - Kelt on Hviezdoslovovo Námestie - is the place for you.Opened on May 13, Kelt was designed in memory of the peoples inhabiting much of Europe and Asia Minor during Roman times. The culture of the Celts developed during the Bronze Age around the upper Danube and reached its climax in the first century BC before the region was overrun by various Germanic races.The new owners of Kelt clearly hope their new establishment will be overrun by customers. And on an average night, one gets the feeling they may succeed in their mission.
Slovak sappers join NATO aid operations in Albania
Up to 40 Slovak military engineers will be deployed to Albania to join the 8,000-member Allied Harbour mission, which will be engaged in peacemaking operations in Albanian regions that have been affected by the conflict in neighbouring Kosovo. Slovak officials said the planned mission had earned the country high praise from both NATO and the European Union, and would not be the last of its kind.According to Defence Minister Pavol Kanis, the Slovak mission was a demonstration of support for the current NATO bombing campaign in Yugoslavia. "The consequences of the Kosovo tragedy and the high number of resulting refugees is a catastrophe," Kanis told The Slovak Spectator on May 26. "The situation must be solved internationally. The NATO initiative is founded upon humanitarian ideals, and Slovakia would like to take part in this humanitarian mission."
Palacka selects group to pick ST partner
On May 21, Telecom Minister Gabriel Palacka appointed a commission for selection of a strategic partner for state telecom monolpoly Slovenské Telekomunikácie (ST). The commission is to be chaired by Palacka himself, while the vice-chairman will be Deputy Telecom Minister František KurejOther members of the commission include a secretary Stanislav Vanek, currently head of the Ministry's Postal and Telecommunications Section, head of the Slovak Cabinet Office Tibor Tóth, Deputy Finance Minister Viliam Vaškovič, Deputy Economy Minister Ján Sabol, Deputy Privatization Minister Vladimír Drozda, FNM (national privatization agency) president Ľudovít Kanik, vice-chair of the Antitrust Bureau Jaroslav Koštalik, head of the Telecommunications Office Ľudovít Hogh and head of the Telecom Ministry's Privatization Section, Helena Kavcová.
Globtel celebrates big client lead over EuroTel
Globtel GSM notched its 400,000 customer on May 18, leaving the firm over 100,000 customers ahead of EuroTel, its only competitor on the Slovak mobile telephony market. Although Globtel joined the market fully six years after EuroTel was launched in 1991, the firm has built its 57.8% market share through subsidised prices and effective promotion.EuroTel, which operates on both NMT and GSM-900 frequency networks, ascribed the widening gap between the two companies to a number of factors, including poor marketing strategies on EuroTel's part in the past, a business strategy that focused on generating yearly profits rather than expanding client base, and the low prices offered by Globtel.
Telecom sale key to future of both Slovakia and ST
If everything goes according to the government's plans, the state-run telecom monopoly Slovenské Telekomunikácie (ST) will be privatised by the end of this year, bringing foreign capital and know-how to a cash-strapped, technologically deficient firm. The fact that ST's monopoly ends in 2003, at which time international competition can enter the market, has created added incentive for wedding ST to a rich and high-tech foreign partner, for analysts agree that ST will not survive international competition alone.
Refugees "tired and relieved"
The first wave of Kosovo refugees, many carrying only the clothes they been wearing for 35 days and nightmarish tales of violent treatment on their journeys, arrived in Slovakia relieved to find themselves out of the Macedonian camps and in a country offering "good will," humanitarian aid officials said.Upon arrival to Bratislava's Milan Rastislav Štefánik International airport at 20:20 on Wednesday, May 5, the first group of 90 refugees - consisting of 35 children, 33 women and 22 men - were immediately transported to a quarantine camp in Adamov. At Adamov, Shukry Xanaj, an Albanian who has lived in Slovakia as a photographer for the past eight years and volunteered to act as camp interpreter, told The Slovak Spectator that the refugees were doing well in spite of their long journey.
Local incentives sway investor decisions
Local government efforts to attract foreign investment to Slovakia's regions vary from sluggish to strenuous, making boomtowns of some cities and paupers of others. Investment advisors say that the variety of local responses to foreign firms threatens to negate the central government's plans to concentrate foreign investment in areas of high unemployment.The government of Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda declared direct foreign investment (FDI) into Slovakia a priority immediately after taking office last October, and followed up with an investment incentive plan in March 1999 to back up its words. The government plan called for a five year tax break for foreign firms that invested at least 5 million euros into Slovakia, and lowered the investment floor to one million euros for companies which invested in areas of high unemployment - mainly Slovakia's poorer eastern regions.
Tesco plans four new 'hyper-markets'
The British owned hyper-market and department store chain Tesco has negotiated deals with Nitra and Košice to open two new hyper-markets in 1999 and an additional two stores in the year 2000, one in Petržalka and the other in Pieštany, The Slovak Spectator has learned.While Tesco has officially confirmed the 1999 opening sites, officials at the company refused to give details about the other two locations. But the mayors of the towns where the stores are planned told The Slovak Spectator that negotiations had been completed and that they were awaiting the stores.The construction is part of an effort from Tesco to develop a series of hyper-markets in Slovakia. The large warehouse-style super stores will differ from Tesco department stores in that they will largely be located outside of city centers.
IT and telecom markets set to boom
According to domestic and international human resources firms, the current shortage of jobs in Slovakia could soon be relieved by a boom in the Information Technology and telecom sectors. Some job market analysts have predicted that these two fields may account for as much as 70% of all new jobs in eastern Europe over the next 10 years."A trend is developing in the fields of Information Technology and telecommunications," said Martin Novotný, managing partner of HR consulting agency Jenewein International in Bratislava. "In terms of human resources, the two fields will definitely create a better job market, because nowadays these areas are very important."Novotný explained that Slovakia, and the eastern European region in general, was still catching up with the West in terms of IT and telecom technology. "This is a classical development," he said, adding that the boom was fast approaching.
Comenius Rector Devínsky: Students are "the cream"
The Slovak University system is in serious trouble. Just ask Ferdinand Devínsky, the rector of Slovakia's largest and most prestigious institution of higher education, Comenius University. Even though it is the best-funded and most competitive school in Slovakia, the university still does not have the ability to buy modern computer equipment and supplies. The school's real budget is now at 1/3 the level it was at in 1991, the rector said.Increasingly, people from international human resources firms are saying that a degree from a Slovak University carries little real weight due to deep problems in the sector. But Devínsky countered that claim, saying that the school remained highly selective and that of the nearly half-million people currently unemployed in Slovakia, only about 1,500 people with higher education degrees are among them. Students from Comenius, he added, also have the opportunity to study at universities around the world. The Slovak Spectator interviewed Devínsky May 5 to ask him about these and other issues.
AIMS accepts Slovak firm Appel
The biggest European network of personnel companies, Associates for International Management Search (AIMS), added Slovakia to its list of member countries in December, 1998. At a press conference on April 25 in Bratislava, AIMS announced that the Slovak firm Appel Counseling had successfully bid for inclusion into the network through its exemplary "skills in public relations and marketing."AIMS President Christian Nitsche said that his firm would help Appel Counseling by giving the Slovak firm access to western know-how. He added that AIMS had been surprised by the level of human resources professionalism it had found in Slovakia, and that Slovakia should not be considered a second-rate member.
Deutsche Bank named ST sale adviser
Ending weeks of speculation, Telecom Minister Gabriel Palacka selected Deutsche Bank as the winner of a tender to become the legal and financial adviser for the privatisation of the state-run telecom monopoly Slovenské Telekomunikácie (ST). The Bratislava brokerage house Slávia Capital claimed on April 28 that it had been named by Deutsche Bank as the domestic partner.The Deutsche Bank consortium won the bid over two other consortiums, one headed by Solomon Brothers and the other by Rothschilds, said Stanislav Vanek, director of the ministry's regulatory department."The privatisation of ST will be achieved by offering a foreign investor a 34 to 49% share of the company through an increase in share assets," said Peter Druga, the Ministry's Telecommunications Policy Department Director. Revenues in the "hundreds of million dollars" for the state are expected by Palacka as the result of the ST privatisation.
City University nonplussed by state accreditation
While still not a fully accredited academic institution in Slovakia, the American-based City University in Bratislava expects to garner full accreditation from the Ministry of Education by the end of this year. However, City University officials said the impending accreditation wouldn't change their teaching methods, since the school already produced what employers and analysts classified as "effective and highly motivated" graduates. In fact, university officials said, the ministry certificate was of minimal significance to the school.Part of the university's indifference to the accreditation question stems from the school's insistence that it is more concerned with producing graduates ready to step into the modern world of business.As Slovakia's unemployment rate continues to rise, with March figures hitting a record 17.6%, both schools and employers are putting a high premium on marketable skills. According to human resources companies in Bratislava, the two most important employee qualifications on the modern Slovak employment market are fluency in English and on-the-job experience.
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