List of author's articles, page 5
Marital quarrel leads to knifing in Trebišov
An ongoing marital quarrel ended in murder last week in eastern Slovakia's Trebišov.When Dezider B. returned home after dropping his son off at nursery school, his wife Zlata began complaining that her life had worsened since she'd left the Czech Republic to live with him. It was a familiar theme in their unhappy marriage.Already angry that she'd refused to cook dinner for their five children, Dezider became enraged, wielding a knife he was using to cut salami for lunch and stabbing Zlata in the neck.
Cabinet backs budget draft in show of unity
Cabinet ministers united behind a draft 2002 central state budget August 30 which envisaged a deficit of 37 billion crowns ($740 million), and a public finance, or general government budget deficit, of 36.8 billion crowns (3.5% of GDP). The latter meets an important condition of a World Bank loan and furthers preparations for Slovakia's entry into the European Union.Speaking immediately after the government approved the draft, Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda said that the cross-ministerial backing for the bill meant it was now unlikely to have a troubled passage through parliament."The draft was approved by consensus. This suggests that the proposal will also be approved in parliament with the support of ruling coalition MPs," said Dzurinda. The draft must be submitted to parliament by October 15 at the latest, but is expected to be included in this month's session.
Bidders move for state stake in SP
Privatisation Minister Mária Machová announced September 4 that eight firms had put in bids for the state's 67% share in Slovakia's largest insurer, Slovenská poisťovňa (SP).The share is expected to be sold by the end of this year, or very early next, and will coincide with the loss of the firm's monopoly on motor vehicle insurance and the liberalisation of the insurance market.SP's sale would also bring the transformation of the country's once troubled financial sector closer to an end following recent bank privatisations and further planned sales of state finance houses.
E-advertising set for growth, say web firms
The global advertising industry is heading for its worst year in a decade: 2001 could be a relative disaster, with the US market shrinking by 4.2% and the biggest European markets by an average of 2%, according to one of the world's leading media forecasters, Zenith Media.The fall has affected the internet too. Zenith predicts that the burst of the dot.com bubble only 18 months ago will slow internet advertising growth to 10% this year. In comparison, the growth of the internet itself is estimated by IT firms and independent observers at around 400% annually, this year being no exception.But in Slovakia the situation is different. For the last three years the volume of money spent on advertising has been rising slowly but surely, and with it internet advertising. What's more, internet firms say, scope exists for that same growth to occur in e-advertising if the internet, and internet penetration in particular, keeps growing at its present rate.
Angola-bound weapons impounded in Bratislava
A shipment of 504 anti-tank missiles was seized at Bratislava airport September 29 as police squads foiled an apparent attempt to transport the arms from Iran to Angola.Flight IL 76 from Tehran landed at 18:53 at the airport, unloaded cargo and then left for Copenhagen at 20:39. Airport authorities then seized the cargo after discovering the falsely declared goods when checking transport documents.A plane from the Ukraine, arriving at 20:27 in Bratislava, was not allowed to collect the missiles, and flew on to its original destination, Ovda in Israel, the next day without its planned load.
Lagging reforms may protect economy
Privatisation, cheap labour and low trading volumes with the US may allow Slovakia to stave off some of the most serious effects of a predicted global recession, analysts and international financial institutions say.Reports from senior research houses and international bodies such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) suggest that central Europe as a whole is among the regions most prepared to weather the expected economic storm from a global market turndown over the next 12 months.However, within that, analysts and economists say, Slovakia has not only a good chance of riding out that storm, but maybe even profiting from it.
BSE confirmed in first Slovak cow
Slovakia's first case of BSE, the cattle disease thought to be linked to a human brain wasting condition, was confirmed October 4 when a test carried out by a lab in Germany returned a positive result on a cow in the village of Dolná Ždaňa in central Slovakia.Farmers' leaders and government ministers said, after initial tests for the disease in Slovakia proved positive on September 28, that consumers should not be concerned over beef they have already purchased. They also confirmed that 15 kilos (33lbs) had been recovered out of the 22 kilos released for public consumption from the Vtáčnik cooperative farm where the cow had been slaughtered.Other meat from the slaughterhouse at which the infected cow had been killed had also been confiscated, they said.
Železný takes Slovak plunge
Czech media baron Vladimír Železný, a man who has taken the Czech Republic to international arbitration and is facing a litany of legal action over his business activities, is promising to be a new force in the world of Slovak television after his September 16 purchase of a 70% stake in Mac TV, operator of regional Slovak station TV Global.His leap onto the Slovak market immediately caused a stir. Pavol Rusko, owner of Slovakia's most popular station, private TV Markíza, and thus Železný's biggest rival, has derided his potential competitor station as a "trash can for the unsuccessful programmes" of Czech TV Nova.Železný's acquisition of Global fulfilled the Czech businessman's long-publicised aim to break into Slovak television. General manager and shareholder at TV Nova, the most watched station in the Czech Republic, Železný's arrival promises a shake-up in what is a troubled market almost monopolised by Markíza, say some of his potential competitors and media watchdogs.
Review: Are these really Peter Lipa's best days?
If these are Peter Lipa's best days, I'm glad I never heard his worst.The title of the self-styled Slovak jazz icon's latest LP, Peter Lipa...V najlepších rokoch (Peter Lipa...In his best years), suggests that the singer is at the peak of his powers. But hearing the result, one wonders how Mr. Lipa could not by now have realised the immense limitations of his vocal ability.Having heard Lipa for the first time on a truly talentless cover of the Beatles' Got to Get You Into My Life, I was hoping this 18-song album would overturn my poor opinion of Slovakia's supposed jazz giant. No such luck.
Gas rises galvanise SPP sale opposition
Slovak gas giant SPP could face a 20 billion crown ($400 million) loss on domestic gas sales, and a threat to its overall profitability, unless the government approves a contentious 20% proposed rise in regulated gas prices.Leaders at SPP (Slovenský plynárenský priemysel) issued the warning after the coalition council - a senior government decision-making body - failed to agree on the Economy Ministry's proposed rises September 19. The gas rises have opened a rift in the ruling coalition that political observers say is likely to widen as September 2002 national elections approach.Economy Minister Ľubomír Harach and Deputy PM for the Economy Ivan Mikloš, who have backed the rises, have in doing so lost the support of the trade unions. Union umbrella group KOZ, lead by Ivan Saktor, has joined forces with the ruling coalition Civic Understanding (SOP) and Democratic Left (SDĽ) parties in refusing to support the rises.
Philips relocation to create jobs
LG Philips Displays, part of the electronics giant Philips' corporate empire, said September 5 that it was to outsource some of its production activities to Slovak firm Punch Námestovo starting in June next year.The move, which will involve the transfer of 480 employees from the Dutch city of Eindhoven over the next 18 months, has been prompted, LG Philips said, by a need "to control costs" and move production of electronic guns for colour picture tubes near to key customers in the Czech Republic.However, as well as shifting employees from the Netherlands, Punch Námestovo said that the move would create 600 jobs in total, creating an extra 120 new jobs for Slovak workers.
VÚB's Vaškovič: No more "good mother"
Following its recent acquisition by Italy's IntesaBci, Všeobecná úverová banka (VÚB), Slovakia's second largest bank, has said it is poised to enter a new era in its history, and with it that of the Slovak banking sector.President of VÚB, Ladislav Vaškovič, who has headed the bank since the current government began its term in October 1998 and who guided it through its privatisation, talked to The Slovak Spectator September 6 about the past, present and future of VÚB and Slovak banking.
Globtel rebranding as it turns Orange
Slovakia's biggest mobile operator, Globtel, began a lengthy re-branding process September 13 as it became a member of one of the world's largest mobile phone operator groups, Orange.Majority-owned by France Telecom, which in August last year acquired the Orange group, Globtel is Slovakia's market leader in terms of client numbers, its just under one million clients exceeding those of rival Eurotel by nearly 300,000.Membership in the Orange group, and the subsequent change of the Globtel brand name to Orange, will give the company the backing of one of the most powerful and technologically advanced telephony groups as it prepares for both the entry of a third operator onto Slovakia's mobile market, and its own acquisition of a 'third-generation' UMTS phone licence next year, Globtel and Orange executives said.
Pensions rise stirs deficit misgivings
Finance Minister Brigita Schmögnerová said she could not rule out dipping into state coffers to help social security company Sociálna poisťovňa (SP) make pension payments this year. The announcement came after parliament agreed September 7 to a 7% rise in pensions as of October.Already struggling with billions of crowns of receivables, SP said it would be forced to dig into its reserves to make the payments after members of parliament (MPs) approved a rise 2% above that proposed by cabinet.SP, which had budgeted for the 5% rise, would cut its reserve fund by 300 million crowns ($6 million) to 2.2 billion crowns this year to meet the payments, said Miroslav Knitl, the firm's general director.
Fed up by courts, FNM abandons legal suits
In a tacit indictment of the Slovak judicial system, the head of the state privatisation agency National Property Fund (FNM), Jozef Kojda, said September 5 that his agency would not open any more legal cases over disputed past privatisations.Speaking after submitting a report to cabinet on the progress made in investigations into dubious sales of state property between 1994 and 1998 under the Vladimír Mečiar government, Kojda told journalists that "not one of the ongoing cases" involving suspected illegal sales looked as if it would be resolved by a court decision soon. He added that the judiciary was taking far too long to bring many cases to a conclusion."The FNM has laid dozens of criminal charges, but not one of them, to my knowledge, has been finally and fully resolved," he said. The disputed property and shares are worth billions of crowns, the agency has said.
NBS: Devín bank investor a fraud
One of Slovakia's most controversial banks, Devín banka, was put under forced administration August 24 after running into severe liquidity problems under the weight of mounting losses.The bank, which has been at the centre of a number of scandals involving Russian debt recovery and links to opposition and coalition political parties, is likely to file for bankruptcy, central bank governor Marián Jusko said, unless an investor put 3 billion crowns in cash into the bank's basic capital by August 31."My personal guess is that it won't happen. The bank's losses are enormous," he said as Devín went under central bank administration.
Latest crash adds to litany of bank woe in Slovakia
Devín banka is the fifth Slovak bank to go under forced administration in the last four years, while a sixth, AG Banka had its licence to operate as a bank removed during the same period.Slovakia's bank sector, which many domestic and foreign analysts have characterised as weak, poorly governed and burdened by a past of mismanagement and corruption, has recently been lifted by the successful sales of the two largest state banks, Slovenská sporiteľňa and Všeobecná úverová banka. The former was sold to Erste Bank and the latter to Italian IntesaBci.Consolidation is slowly beginning to creep through the sector, with Investičná a rozvojová banka (IRB) likely to be sold soon, the smallest Slovak bank, Banka Slovakia, also attracting interest, and the state's share in mid-sized bank Poštová banka soon to come under the hammer.
Sitár: Good luck to successor
Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda's foreign investment advisor, Alan Sitár, stepped down from his post as head of state investment agency Sario on August 8 amid increasingly open criticism of the agency's work, and of Sitár himself.Sario's annual general meeting in late June ended with approval of a budget for this year in defiance of the Economy Ministry's own plans for Sario's future financing and operation. The ministry had already agreed to the budget plans months before, but in the end changed its mind. On August 7 the government agreed to turn Sario into a joint-stock company with the Economy Ministry in effective control.Citing an inability to find a modus vivendi with the ministry over Sario's structure and future, Sitár resigned from his position August 8.
Devín banka's history: Controversial past never outlived
Devín banka's forced administration brings an end to a saga of contention and suspicion surrounding the bank since its foundation in 1992.Formed with a basic capital of just 444 million crowns ($8.8 million) by insurance firm Slovenská poisťovňa and the Slovak Union of Cooperative Producers, the bank ran into financial problems almost immediately, forcing it to look to new investors and beginning the finance house's connections to Russian groups.
ST monopoly wilting under customer defection to mobiles
Figures released by fixed-line monopoly Slovenské telekomunikácie (ST) in mid August showed that for the first time in Slovakia's history, the number of fixed line telephone links fell below the number of mobile phone users. ST registered a drop of 57,000 in the number of fixed line links in July to 1,630,987. In the same month, the number of new clients using the services of the mobile phone operator Eurotel rose by 64,000, the company claimed.The new clients have pushed the total number of mobile users of Eurotel, and Slovakia's other mobile operator, Globtel, to 1,635,276. Globtel has yet to release its own customer numbers for July.
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