Business Opportunities

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It is expected that in the next few years there will be a shift in the labor force lower value-added and lower paid to more sophisticated and better paid ones in the West of the country. Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, has recently become a saturated market, which has made it more difficult to find employees. It has a very low unemployment rate of 2%. Bratislava is also a hotspot for education with the highest concentration and highest quality of colleges and universities in the country. The people living in the city were more exposed to working with global organizations, in international teams, and leading more complex projects since most local businesses were already acquired by international firms.

Companies in the lowest levels of the value chain will naturally move to eastern locations in which they will be able to take advantage of abundant, inexpensive, and less sophisticated labor pools.

In the rest of Slovakia unemployment still allows for more companies to reap the benefits of low cost labor. And with a few small exceptions the more east a company moves the easier it gets to hire people.

VAST Opportunities Still EXIST

In 1998 Slovakia was lagging behind as a very unattractive country for foreign investments, being the last with investments reaching only $US 541 per capita. Until 1998, Italy spawned over three times ($US 1,840) and Germany almost five times the amount that Slovakia attracted ($US 2,512). Since that time many corporations and individuals have spotted the benefits Slovakia has to offer and have benefited from their decisions. Until 2007 Slovakia attracted more FDI per capita than Italy and almost the same amount as Germany.

FDI per capita in Slovakia is 31 times as much as in China and 119 times the amount than in India. Moreover the growth of FDI inflow is 2.5 times faster than that of India and 7.5 times faster than that of China. This clearly shows that at comparable levels corporations have found doing business in Slovakia way more attractive than in India or China. The solid arguments presented in this document clearly show that Slovakia is a great place in which to do business. Corporations should no longer wonder whether “to be or not to be” in Slovakia. Rather, they should explore “how” they could go about it so that they can reap the greatest benefits today and in the foreseeable future.