The region dominates the heart of a transport corridor linking both the north / south and east / west communications corridor of Central and Eastern Europe. The capital city, with around 250,000 inhabitants, has had most of its impressive buildings refurbished which reflects the renaissance the city is currently enjoying. The city hosts many important cultural and scientific institutions and its international class airport, combined with a well educated workforce, holds the key to successfully attracting more foreign investors.

The region has a long and impressive industrial heritage with the largest company, VSZ Holdings, producing steel and employing around 25,000. Investment in the company by US Steel of over $65 million is sharpening the competitive edge of the food canning division but, clearly, other parts of the plant will have to be streamlined to face up to the full rigours of global competition. Following restructuring by new management the plant, by autumn 1999, was back up to full production.

With companies like Siemens Automotive employing around 1,500 producing electric motors and generators, this underlined the region’s ability to readily serve customers in Western Europe on a just-in-time basis.

As more of the heavier industry companies complete the necessary and inevitable rationalisation programmes this will significantly increase the labour pushing unemployment over 30% in some districts. And in terms of meeting the needs of modern information technology industry, the city’s Technical University, whist lacking world class equipment, is producing world class graduates judging by the feedback from the companies that have been employing them.

General Information

Slovakia boasts eight well developed regions and in terms of population, they are finely balanced, as the table below illustrates

Regions of Slovakia and Population - Total Population of Country - 5.4 million

Unlike the neighbouring countries with which Slovakia competes for foreign direct investment, manufacturing and the established infrastructure to underpin the activities, is not concentrated in a few territories. Rather, Slovakia has a well balanced manufacturing base with an even distribution of production activity across the eight regions as outlined below.

Regions of Slovakia - Workforce engaged in Manufacturing