BRATISLAVA, January 24, (WEBNOVINY) — Leader of the largest opposition party SMER-SD Robert Fico says that the incompetence of the present government has significantly contributed to the growth of unemployment in Slovakia. He further told a new conference on Tuesday that the only measure of the current government in relation to unemployment was revision of the Labor Code. “They said that such Labor Code would create tens of thousand new jobs,” Fico said. According to him, the number of people without work was also increased by collective layoffs in railway companies. “All of them are registered in labor offices. [Labor] Minister Mihal was unable to prepare any meaningful projects,” SMER-SD chief said.
He opines that the rising unemployment was also caused by halting of highway construction and as a result 5,000 to 6,000 people in the building industry lost their jobs. According to Fico, the gas utility Slovensky Plynarensky Priemysel, in which the state has a majority stake, is also laying off hundreds of people. “These dismissals are mainly in areas where people cannot find work,” he stated. He further said that the government hands out investment incentives to other companies. “We know the statement of Minister Miskov that we will change Slovakia into Singapore but the current situation is far from this vision,” Fico added.
Fico promised that if SMER-SD forms the future government, the first meeting of the new Cabinet outside Bratislava will be held in the Rimavska Sobota and Poltar districts where unemployment reaches almost thirty percent. “At this session the Cabinet has to immediately decide about financing of a dual carriageway from Zvolen to Lucenec and Rimavska Sobota,” he said. According to him, funding of this road is possible only via a PPP project. Fico stated that this region needs quality infrastructure.
He further said that some aid should be directed also to the glass maker in Poltar which is struggling with bankruptcy. “We support the idea of selling the company as a whole,” Fico said adding that this firm also needs technology help that could be financed from EU funds. The new government is also supposed to deal with incentives for investors differently. “The era of discrimination of the domestic business environment has ended,” the SMER-SD chief emphasized.
Registered unemployment rate in Slovakia rose 0.26 percentage points in December of last year to 13.59 percent. Unemployment in the last month of 2011 was highest since July 2004, when it hit 13.65 percent. As the Central Office for Labor, Social Affairs and Family announced, the registered unemployment rate last month increased by 1.13 percentage points from a year ago. The number of jobseekers able to take up a job immediately reached 362,428, up 6,773 compared with November of last year and 27,525 compared with the same period a year ago. On the whole, 399,800 people were jobless in December, which is an increase by 6,678 persons on the previous month and 18,591 persons on the previous year. The unemployment rate calculated from the overall number of jobseekers last year reached 14.99 percent. Compared with November of last year, the rate swelled by 0.25 percentage points and by 0.80 percentage points in annualized terms.
SITA
