BRATISLAVA, November 11, (WEBNOVINY) — In the interest of future economic growth and preserving competitive strength, Slovakia should change the structure of its economy in the coming years. The change should be aimed at support for innovations. “It will be necessary to base our development, growth more and more on sophisticated production as well as services,” stated Finance Minister Ivan Miklos (SDKU-DS). The new program Minerva 2.0, containing a program of the society’s development, is to serve this purpose.
In order to fulfill the defined strategy, the Cabinet set up a new council for innovations, which held its first session on Wednesday. The council approved a schedule of concrete steps and measures. “There are 26 steps on how to get Slovakia into the first league of most successful countries,” said Government Plenipotentiary for Knowledge-Based Economy Martin Bruncko with regard to the approved steps. The measures include introducing grants for young scientists, grants to attract prominent scientists from abroad, as well as an effort to launch a system to support science and its popularity. Slovakia should also use structural funds to build infrastructure for research and create financial schemes to support development in firms.
According to Finance Minister Miklos, on the agenda is also a reform of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. Structural funds should contribute with EUR 300 million to the funding of projects. The allocation from the state budget represents EUR 30 million. In spite of the upcoming early parliamentary elections, Slovakia should not waste time and continue in the prepared strategy. The new government that will be formed based on the elections should continue in the project, too, Miklos added.
The Cabinet approved the statute of the Cabinet’s Council for Innovations in September of this year. Its tasks include preparations of action plans for building of a knowledge-based economy, supervision over their implementation, monitoring the fulfillment of individual aims and deciding about future directions of innovative policies.
SITA