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AOK: Foreign Investors Say Slovakia Still Competitive Enough
Sunday 21 February 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, February 21 (TASR) – Foreign investors consider Slovakia's business environment to continue to be attractive, according to a survey carried out by the American Chamber of Commerce (AOK) in Slovakia among more than a hundred foreign investors from 22 countries operating in Slovakia.
According to the survey, conducted between March and June 2009, 99 percent of the investors have felt the negative impacts of the global economic crisis in their business activities. Nonetheless, only 1 percent actually decided to move their business outside Slovakia, and only 8 percent of these businesses at that time forcasted staff cuts and production reduction in their enterprises, citing such moves as necessary to survive. The fact that most of the foreign businesses want to keep running in Slovakia strongly indicates that the country is still in good shape in terms of competitiveness, suggested the survey.
It has also been confirmed that Slovakia's attempts to stabilise its public finances before it entered the eurozone in January 2009 actually bore fruit for foreign investors: as many as 83 percent of investors assume that the euro introduction had a positive impact on their businesses; and what's more important, as many as 35 percent of the investors in Slovakia are thinking about staying on and expanding their business activities in Slovakia.
On the other hand, the majority of investors voiced their discontent as to how the Slovak Government responded to the inevitable effects of the economic crisis. Also, the Government's overall performance in the economic sphere was assessed as rather negative.
AOK was founded in Bratislava, Slovakia in 1993, as an independent non-profit organisation financed exclusively from the contributions of its members. It has offices in Bratislava and (since 2003) in Kosice.
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