BRATISLAVA, November 25, (WEBNOVINY) – Slovak entrepreneurs are upset about approving investment incentives for foreign investors. The Klub 500 organization, which clusters companies employing 500 and more employees, objects to the approach of the Economy Ministry’s officials in approving investment stimuli. “ I will put it straightly. If such practices are to continue, the minister should consider whether he is able to make decisions beneficial for Slovak businesses,“ said Club 500 Chairman Vladimir Sotak. “I smell big corruption,” he specified.
The businesses object to the fact that the government has approved stimuli for investors who are not bringing new technologies to the country and who have direct competitors in Slovakia.. “This way, a local producer with a long tradition, who has broken into the global market without any state stimuli, only with its own sources, is directly threatened,” Sotak said. The Klub 500 chairman reacted in particular to the recently approved stimuli to the Austrian company Gallai&Wolff, which is a direct competitor of Ocelove Konstrukcie Doprastavu, a.s. The businesses want the decision to provide the aid to the firm to be reversed.
Slovak entrepreneurs demand changing the system of providing state stimuli in a way that if an investor comes to a sector with local producers, assistance will be automatically provided also to local entrepreneurs. “It is important to realize that local entrepreneurs will contribute to investment stimuli, as in this form they will in fact donate them to their direct rivals,” Sotak said.
At its latest session, the outgoing center-right Cabinet of Iveta Radicova agreed to provide state assistance in various forms totaling almost EUR 45.8 million to nine investors. The supported companies are expected to invest more than EUR 221 million and open over 1,500 new jobs in Slovakia.
SITA