List of author's articles, page 9
Project Infovek brings schools into Internet age
A project designed to provide Internet access to every primary and secondary school in Slovakia by the year 2009 has gotten off to a promising start, organisers say. Blessed with "a lot of heart and not a lot of money," Project Infovek has managed to connect 80 schools to the Internet this year alone.Tibor Papp, co-founder of Project Infovek, said that these 80 schools will officially go on-line in November. If the project can continue to secure adequate funds, Papp added, the original 10-year timespan set for achieving Infovek's aims could be cut in half.Papp called the project's launch "a great success," adding that Slovakia had taken a giant step towards arming its younger citizens - the workforce of the 21st century - with computer-age skills. Without such workforce skills, Papp explained, Slovakia could not hope to attract high-tech foreign investors or to make its own domestic industry more competetive on world markets.
Nextra makes net cheaper
Internet connection rates in Slovakia are among the lowest in Europe. Even compared to other former communist bloc countries like the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, the percentage of Slovaks using the Internet is minute - a survey done in September, 1998 by the Focus polling agency found that less than 10% of Slovaks use the net even occasionally (see also chart, page BF I).Information technology (IT) insiders say the Internet has not caught on in Slovakia because Slovaks are still widely ignorant of what the Internet is, while those who do know generally can't afford the connection fees or the hardware needed to use the service.
Slovnaft fights polluter rap
Under the former communist regime in the 1960's and 1970's, the Slovnaft oil refinery was a polluting blight on the Slovak capital of Bratislava. From its site on the south-east edge of the city, the huge refinery clouded the air with a dirty smog and dumped waste into the Danube River.The image of Slovnaft as a titanic polluter has steadily softened since the 1989 Velvet Revolution, however. Everyone - government officials, Slovnaft brass and environmental activists - agrees that the oil refinery has made great strides in reducing the amounts of toxins and waste materials it releases into the surrounding environment.
Beating scares foreign students
Three large white males, two with shaved heads and all with tattooed knuckles, attacked a 26-year old Peruvian student October 9 in what appears to be the latest in a recent series of shocking racial beatings in the nation's capital. The latest incident occurred across the street from the Bratislava Regional Court, and provoked added outrage when police intercepted and delayed a vehicle carrying the injured victim to hospital.
No holds barred to employers in probing new job candidates
When interviewing a candidate for a job, can the interviewer ask if the applicant has ever had a drug or alcohol related problem? Where the candidate has 'roots'? What grades they received in university, or even which university they went to and when?In the US, the answer to all the above questions is 'no' (see questionaire, page BF III). In Slovakia, however, where no laws exist governing what can be asked in an interview, anything goes."In Slovakia, there are no legal guide-lines for the job application and interview process," said Roman Hamala, a lawyer for the Bratislava office of White & Case, an international law firm. "What goes on in the interview is entirely up to the employer's best judgement."
Egon Zehnder arrives
The Swiss management consulting firm Egon Zehnder International (EGI) announced on September 23 that they had finalised plans to expand into Slovakia. The principal activities of EGI include executive search (the search for and selection of executives), management appraisal (the external assessment of management teams) and board appointments (advice on appointments to corporate boards).At a press conference in Bratislava's Hotel Forum, representatives from EGI Prague said that their firm brings impressive credentials to the country."We were responsible for finding the head of the Olympic Committee in Atlanta and for finding the chief engineer for the construction of the tunnel connecting France and Italy," said EGI Partner Erik Slingerland.
Labour law amendments concern foreign firms
Foreign companies in Slovakia say that proposed amendments to Slovakia's existing labour laws will make the country less attractive to potential investors. They are so worried, in fact, that they have called for a meeting with the Members of Parliament currently discussing the amendments.The foreign executives dislike two of the proposals in particular - one restricting the practice of issuing temporary or renewable contracts, and another requiring companies to notify the local labour office whenever 20 or more employees leave the company over a three month span.
Foreigner residence rules revised, but not tightened
Though some minor changes are being made in the law which regulates how long foreigners may stay in Slovakia, representatives of the Interior Ministry denied last week that the Slovak Cabinet had approved draft legislation which could make the residence permit process more difficult.According to Marián Čambálik, the Head of the Border and Foreign Police of the Slovak police Presidium, the revised draft on long and short term residence permits only changes the law minimally.On September 22, the SITA news agency reported that the new legislation would require foreigners wishing to apply for long- or short-term residence in Slovakia to submit their application at a Slovak Embassy in their home country, thereby allowing for the proper verification of the applicant's identification documents. That would seem to make the current process more difficult.
Prime Minster Dzurinda 'just wants to finish' Košice Marathon
He may not be the fastest finisher in Košice October 3, but he should be able to avoid being disqualified from the race. That's how Prime Minister Mikuáš Dzurinda assessed his chances in the Košice Marathon, which he will run for the 12th time on Sunday."Any time over 4 hours," he said with a smile, "is not running - it's walking."This year, 1,011 runners from 25 countries will compete in the marathon, which at 75 is the oldest marathon race in Europe. Since the first 42 kilometre run in 1924, over 22,000 men and 740 women from 59 different countries have participated - including one winner - Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia - who ran without shoes in the 1950's.
HZDS divorces old media mouthpiece
Officials with the opposition Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) party have announced their intention to sever ties with the party's traditional mouthpiece, the pro-HZDS daily newspaper Slovenská Republika. The daily has offered almost exclusive access to the members of ruling governments under former Prime Minister and HZDS Chairman Vladimír Mečiar since its establishment in 1993.HZDS Vice Chairman Rudolf Žiak said on September 21 that the party's decision had been taken on the basis of recent changes at the daily which, the HZDS feared, would turn the paper against its former sponsors. Žiak said that Republika's owners had refused to meet party representatives after an ownership shuffle in early September, adding, "we know for certain that they are not HZDS-positive people."
Mortgage subsidies open doors
Getting a loan to buy a home in Slovakia will soon be much cheaper. According to a bank restructuring bill now making its way through parliament, state subsidies will knock 6% off the prime interest rates on mortgages offered by Slovak banks, bringing rates down from over 13% to a more affordable 7%.The two Slovak banks currently offering mortgages - Všeobecná Úverová Banka (VÚB) and Slovenská Sporiteľňa (SLSP) - welcomed the move and said that they expected the demand for mortgage loans among both private citizens and businesses to increase after the law is passed. Although the bill is still in its second reading in parliament, the local banks say they expect the plan to take effect within a month.
Huge shopping centre to be built in Nové Mesto
An ambitious new shopping centre in the Bratislava district of Nové Mesto will be open by November 2000, according to real estate developer TriGránit.The project, to be called the Polus Center, will be erected on Vajnorská Street near Kuchajda Lake, and will offer retail shops, office space, entertainment facilities and residential flats.According to project manager Todd Cowen, construction will proceed in two phases, with the first phase costing $75 million and the price of the second phase still undetermined.
'Europeum': Old Town offices
A new business centre, called 'Europeum,' will add 6,000 m2 of office space, 3,000 m2 of retail shops and 770 m2 of new, luxurious flats to Bratislava's city centre. The project will be run by Europeum Business Center (EBC) and will cost some 850 million Slovak crowns by the time it is finished in the year 2002.The Europeum will be built on the Suché Mýto Square, on a lot adjoining the Hotel Fórum where the Fortúna Disco night club currently sits. According to EBC director Richard Teichmann, the site was of particular interest to his firm because of its central location.
Hamžík offers nuclear closure for EU entry
Austria and the European Union turned up the heat on Slovakia recently in an effort to force the country to close its aging Jaslovské Bohunice nuclear power plant ahead of schedule. The Slovak government has said it cannot afford to close the plant before 2008 to 2010 at the earliest, but Austrian and EU politicians have warned that if Bohunice's V1 and V2 reactors are not shut down next year, they will block Slovakia's EU entry drive at the Helsinki summit this December.The pressure last week came from two main sources - Francois Lamoureux, co-chair of the EC-Slovakia working group, and Austrian Minister for Women's Affairs and Consumer Protection Barbara Prammer.
Public "scarred" by privatisation
Growing up in the western Slovak village of Horná Streda, eight kilometres north of Piešťany, Vlastimil Vicen was a "very smart and mischievous kid," said a former classmate who smiled as he recalled the adolescent shenanigans the two would get up to together.Sitting in a local village pub on September 5, the man said he hadn't seen Vicen in person since he left for university years ago. He had, however, followed his friend's exploits in the Slovak tabloids with great interest. Vicen's drunk-driving accident outside Bratislava in April this year, and his presence in July at the funeral of underworld boss Peter 'Žaluď' Steinhubel came to mind, the man said.For many Slovaks, however, former MP Vlastimil Vicen is an example of the cleptocrat tendencies they have hated in the country's politicians over the past ten years.
VÚB debts, losses threaten sale
According to a bank restructuring programme recently approved by the government, state-owned bank Všeobecná Úverová Banka (VÚB) needs to be restructured, recapitalised and sold. But as the real extent of problems at the beleaguered bank continues to surface, some analysts are wondering if VÚB can be made attractive enough to interest an investor.In a dramatic year-on-year about face in financial results, VÚB reported a first half 1999 loss of 1.48 billion Slovak crowns ($35 million), compared to last year's first half declared profit of 73.57 million crowns. It was then discovered that shoddy book keeping had resulted in a miscalculation of four billion crowns last year, turning a two million crown full year 1998 profit into a 3.998 billion crown loss.
Client banking services on Slovak market lag far behind West
Seven years after the establishment of the Slovak banking system, slow and expensive service is still one of the first things westerners notice when doing business with domestic banks. Cashing a personal cheque drawn on a western bank, for example, can still take up to six weeks; tellers often refuse to do basic transactions for clients registered at another branch of the same Slovak bank, while service in a foreign language is rarely offered even in the centre of Bratislava.But it is not only foreigners who are being poorly served by Slovak banks. Domestic clients wanting a loan face rates of almost 20%, even though banks rarely pay over 3.5% on client deposits - a discrepancy that banking professionals call "unjustified."Martin Barto, director of strategy at state bank SLSP, said that services offered by domestic banks have been slow to develop because Slovak customers have neither expected nor demanded better treatment. "Bank services depend on the country's living standards and the demands of the individual clients," he said.
Deutsche Bank becomes important Slovak player
After years of virtually ignoring Slovakia, the international banking giant Deutsche Bank (DB) has recently become a major player in some of the country's most important pending privatisation projects. A senior bank official ascribes DB's recently increased role to last November's change in government, and to increased foreign interest in Slovak investments.Having been named in April as the leader of a consortium to advise on the privatisation of state telecom monopoly Slovenské Telekomunikácie (ST), DB was selected on August 23 to arrange the sale of a stake in the eastern Slovak steelmaker VSŽ Košice, and last week was named by the Austrian refinery OMV as the arranger of its attempt to buy into the Slovnaft blue chip refinery.
Transport Ministry official defends 30 billion Sk in highway spending
With the state budget already over 12 billion Slovak crowns in deficit, and likely to overshoot the government's full year target of 15 billion by a wide margin, questions are once again being raised about the state's expensive highway construction programme. Do we need it? Can we afford it?Peter Barek, director of the Transport Ministry's Road Infrastructure Section, says the government's plan to allocate 30 billion crowns over four years to complete highway projects begun by the former government was taken with one eye on the state budget and the other on the country's EU integration ambitions.Barek took two hours on August 24 to explain the ministry's policy to The Slovak Spectator.
Expensive cars face daunting Slovak regulations
Importers of foreign cars are struggling to survive in the tough Slovak market. Thanks to a domestic currency that is 20% weaker than it was less than a year ago, as well as to a government imposed 7% import surcharge as of June 1, sales are down 60% from last year, car importers say.Július Šabo, general director of the German car importer Mercedes-Benz Bratislava, said that 1999 had been the most trying year in Slovakia for his firm so far."This year has been very hard," he said. "The Deutsche mark has strengthened [from 21.65 to the crown on December 17 to as high as 24.18 on May 20] and now there is a 7% import tax. It is hard to say which of these factors hurts us the most, but altogether, we expect to sell only 70% of the passenger cars we sold last year."
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