List of author's articles, page 6
E-toll launch deadline tightens
A NATIONAL electronic road toll system could still be launched on schedule in January 2009, according to analysts, but that target is now looking increasingly tight. To meet it, the tender to decide on the system’s operator would have to be completed during April and a contract signed with the winner by the end of the month.
Airport’s plans for take-off
BRATISLAVA airport has some lofty ambitions. By 2012, it hopes to boost its capacity to serve 5 million passengers per year, providing investment plans work out. Bratislava promises, among other things, a new passenger terminal and growth in the surrounding facilities. While the airport knows how it will finance its initial investments, it hasn’t yet confirmed exactly where the money is coming from to pay for the second stage of the ambitious plan.
Best years of factoring are yet to come
SLOVAKIA's market for factoring services, which expanded by 62 percent in 2004 and 25 percent in 2005, rose by only 2.5 percent last year.
A reliable partner is not always enough
PAYMENT discipline may be getting worse, but since experience of the market economy in Slovakia is still comparatively brief many businesses here don't know how to protect themselves against poor payment behaviour by their business partners.
Leasing clients are likely to stay put after euro
IF Slovakia enters the Eurozone, the amounts in leasing contracts will be converted into euros and interest rates will be set by the European Central Bank.
Corporate financial morals take a slide
SLOVAK firms have been getting worse at paying their debts and meeting their financial obligations over the past two years. However, they've not yet sunk to the level of the least disciplined in Central Europe, experts say. And increasingly, Slovak firms are taking a closer interest in the payment history of their clients.
Tilting at windmills
THIS REGION may only dream of wind farms like the world's biggest at Horse Hollow in Texas, with its 421 turbines and 735 megawatt capacity, but Slovakia too will soon have to answer the challenge of wind power. There are several investors working on dozens of wind power projects here but they have yet to hear from the government whether wind will be a preferred energy source at all in Slovakia. Statements so far by government officials have given little cause for hope.
Slovakia wedded to nuclear power
THOUGH Slovakia will try to move towards more renewable energy sources, nuclear power has an unshakeable place in the energy plans that will guide the country until 2030, at least according to a document that Economy Minister Ľubomír Jahnátek presented in late September 2007.
Solar and biomass wait for state support
EUROPEAN Commission rules bind Slovakia to increasing the share of the energy it produces from renewable sources to 14 percent. Currently, the actual figure stands at around 6 to 7 percent. Solar energy and energy from biomass - which the Slovak economy minister has identified as the country's most promising renewable resource - could contribute to reaching this goal.
Insurance fraud - Slovak style
LOSING non-critical body parts apparently struck some people as an easy route to insurance riches - or at least this is what a recent, well-known case suggests.
Insurance invades cyberspace
WITH the internet now a fixture in many Slovak households, the public can purchase an insurance policy from the comfort of their own home.
Slovak health insurers seek to resolve EU pickle
BEFORE Slovakia joined the European Union, if a Slovak was employed in Austria and registered with an Austrian health insurance company, Slovak law allowed his or her children to remain registered with a Slovak health insurer. In effect, this meant that the Slovak state health system paid the healthcare costs of the children of Slovaks working abroad.
Slovakia is catching up with broadband
ALMOST one fifth of Slovaks are connected to broadband internet service.
Slovakia gets rosy outlook
INVESTORS have been given another reason to trust in Slovakia's economic vigour and the country's prospects for euro adoption in 2009.
Hook-up causes shake-up
THE SLOVAK internet market may have just witnessed the birth of a new leader with the recent merger of two top-ten internet portals.
A single online market
THE EUROPEAN Commission is considering how to make music, films and games available to everyone in the European Union through quick internet access without violating intellectual property. Recommendations are due by mid-2008 on new ways to achieve a single market for online content.
Carmaking suits Slovakia
BEING on top of the global car producer chart suits Slovakia and in fact encourages new investment to pour into the country. Pessimists have been warning that for a small Central European country such intense concentration on car production might later backfire, but optimists say that the positives far outweigh the eventual risks.
Qualified labour remains the challenge
ENLARGING the pool of qualified applicants from which the automotive industry can choose suitable labour is one of the most pressing current issues for the industry in Slovakia.
Food processing attracts investors
SHORTLY after the fall of communism, agriculture was a marginal business interest.
Slovak carmakers upbeat
SLOVAKIA is now firmly on the world map of car production, as home to three major car factories. These have brought significant benefits - attracting a chain of suppliers and additional investments - as well as challenges, not least the need to find skilled labour to fill the new jobs.
- Perk, Trnava: “Stylish, affordable, and seriously tasty” – restaurant review
- News digest: Police linked to Fico gunman video leak – minister accused of cover-up
- Ambulance hit by Russian drone goes on display in centre of Bratislava
- Slovakia’s labour market falters as migration policy falls behind EU neighbours
- Slovakia’s public finances remain in deep trouble
- Police bosses handed cut-price “luxury” flats in Bratislava
- Cyclists, sausages and a railcar called Hurvínek Photo
- “Return not,” the ocean cried. But I returned for her
- Perk, Trnava: “Stylish, affordable, and seriously tasty” – restaurant review
- Ambulance hit by Russian drone goes on display in centre of Bratislava
- Slovakia’s public finances remain in deep trouble
- 3 free things to do in Bratislava in the next seven days
- News digest: Police linked to Fico gunman video leak – minister accused of cover-up
- Bratislava’s embassy-backed events you don’t want to miss
- Hundreds of people ousted from Bratislava’s Volkswagen
- Slovakia’s labour market falters as migration policy falls behind EU neighbours
- Ambulance hit by Russian drone goes on display in centre of Bratislava
- Perk, Trnava: “Stylish, affordable, and seriously tasty” – restaurant review
- Bratislava’s embassy-backed events you don’t want to miss
- “Return not,” the ocean cried. But I returned for her
- Slovakia’s public finances remain in deep trouble
- 3 free things to do in Bratislava in the next seven days
- Slovakia mourns Pope Francis, a shepherd of hope and humility Photo
- The British Film Institute shines a light on Slovak cinema’s boldest chapter Video
- “Return not,” the ocean cried. But I returned for her
- Ambulance hit by Russian drone goes on display in centre of Bratislava
- 3 free things to do in Bratislava in the next seven days
- US giant pulls plug on Slovak factory, axing 137 jobs
- Hundreds of people ousted from Bratislava’s Volkswagen
- Bratislava’s embassy-backed events you don’t want to miss
- Perk, Trnava: “Stylish, affordable, and seriously tasty” – restaurant review
- When to shop over Easter: Opening hours for supermarkets in Slovakia
- News digest: Police linked to Fico gunman video leak – minister accused of cover-up
- Police bosses handed cut-price “luxury” flats in Bratislava
- Cyclists, sausages and a railcar called Hurvínek Photo
- Slovakia’s labour market falters as migration policy falls behind EU neighbours
- Remembering the priest-scientist and pioneer of wireless communication
- Perk, Trnava: “Stylish, affordable, and seriously tasty” – restaurant review
- What is Pope Francis’s message to the powerful?
- Slovakia mourns Pope Francis, a shepherd of hope and humility Photo More articles ›
