THE QUALITY of Slovakia's business environment deteriorated further over the final quarter of 2013, according to the Slovak Business Alliance (PAS).
The pace of deterioration eased and was more moderate compared with the previous four quarters. The current value of the business environment index, prepared based on PAS's own survey, is 66.3 points, the SITA newswire reported.
Compared to the third quarter the index posted a drop of 2.72 percent.
Businesses mostly criticise the low enforceability of law, shortcomings in the application of equality before the law and unstable and nontransparent legislation.
The enforceability of the law and the functionality of the courts posted the most significant drop in the evaluation in the last quarter of 2013.
"The rating of this item has been falling for the fourth consecutive quarter, this time by 8.97 percent," PAS commented, as quoted by SITA. Businesspeople thus see no change in this area.
The application of equality before the law was the second worst evaluated item, with a decrease by 7.8 percent. Entrepreneurs do not like particular measures that only apply to some groups of businesses and thus deform the market and do not contribute to improving the business environment as a whole.
Furthermore, businesspeople point to shortcomings in putting existing legislation in practice.
"The massive criticism of the judiciary continues, despite the fact that lawsuit proceedings became slightly shorter in recent years," claimed project manager of PAS Martin Hassler, as quoted by the TASR newswire. Another issue of the judiciary is the unpredictability of court decisions and the lack of quality monitoring of judges' work.
Source: SITA, TASR
Compiled by Michaela Terenzani from press reports.
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information
presented in its Flash News postings.
