East Slovakia braces for new investments

A large US investor could generate up to 600 jobs in East Slovakia, announced economy minister Juraj Miskov. The investor is still deciding between Poland and Slovakia, with the investor expected to make its final decision before the end of the year.

The investment should concern a higher added value sector, and if Slovakia is selected, the company should start recruiting in the autumn of 2011 already. So far the investor is looking at placing its investment near Presov, hoping to utilise the talent from the Technical University in Kosice.

At the Kosice Invest 2010 conference yesterday, chief analyst with Volksbank Slovensko, Vladimir Vano, noted that Kosice, Presov and the whole of East Slovakia offer the best conditions for investors in terms of the whole EU and the eurozone.

“The qualified workforce in the over-saturated investment region of West Slovakia has already been depleted,” Vano said, adding that the Presov and Kosice regions are unique as they still have a strong base of qualified workers available. He also pointed out that Slovakia has low inflation and accessible bank loans at good interest, making it a prime location for investments.

3 Comments

  1. I like you John and owe you a beer sometime.

  2. Mark, a lot of companies are very defensive about their plans and so request anonymity, as in this case, even when it comes to the field they do business in, in case someone works it out. I’m sure it will be known soon enough.
    I take responsibility for the ‘utilising talent’ phrase, but no derogation intended and in fact, it was praise for the level of education in Slovak universities.
    “Over-saturated’ is bank analyst mumbo-jumbo that basically points out that West Slovakia has had more than its fair share of investments to date.
    For investors and employers, people are generally commodities in the business plan at the end of the day, but I can try to make the articles sound more ‘personal’ if you want, saying something like ‘they will hire lots of Jozos and Feris’.

  3. Hopefully jobs will materialize in a region where less opportunities exists… However, why is there no note of who the employer is or in what industry? I love the way corporations refer to people as though they’re simply commodities, hence the terms “utilize talent”, “best conditions for investors” and “over-saturated investment region….has already been depleted”. Isn’t all this just political mumbo-jumbo referring to the fact that a company is snooping around Slovakia for cheap land, tax breaks and ultra-cheap labor? Sure it is!

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