Slovak-German regional business forum 2016 takes place in Košice
Eastern Slovakia is a place in which it is worth investing, where it is worth doing business and working. Historically the very first VIA FORUM 2016 - Slovak-German regional business forum InteReCo 2016, which took place on May 11 - 13 of this year in the Yasmin Hotel in Košice, made it its objective to support that statement from the first sentence and to direct the attention of potential investors, employers and business leaders to opportunities presented by the regions of Košice and Prešov.
This event, the invitation to which was accepted by dozens of representatives of business entities, banks and financial institutions, scientific-research institutions as well as organizations from the tourism sector in Slovakia, Germany and other countries, was organized by the East Slovakian Investment Agency and Progress Promotion Košice agency in cooperation with other partners from Slovakia and the Federal Republic of Germany. It was organized under the auspices of the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic and of the upcoming Slovakian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The main topics of the forum included the presentation of priorities of economic and development potential, advantages and opportunities of the East Slovakian region; its human, professional and innovative capacities, investment incentives, support and conditions for investing in the region, presentation of successful investments from Germany, technological companies and the creative industry, as well as issues of the congress industry. All of this was organized especially in the form of panel discussions, presentations, meetings and working negotiations of potential investors, partners, companies and organizations.
U. S. Steel Košice Vice President External Affairs, Administration and Business Development Miroslav Kiraľvarga, Ľubomír Bezák from the company Spinea, Miloslav Karaffa from Elcom and Daniel Tomko from TomarkAero shared their views of their actions, successes and potentials in one of five panel discussions, aimed at the presentation of examples from sectors forming the economic, development and innovative basis of the East Slovakian region.
In his speech Vice President Miroslav Kiraľvarga presented the company U. S. Steel Košice, the milestones of its establishment, and the five main values the company pursues in its business activities as well as its manufacturing programme; he also pointed out the currently high over-capacity of steel production in the world, which affects the whole industry. "With the Carnegie Way transformation process in our company we are reacting to the situation in the steel industry not only in Europe but in the whole world, and we are striving to achieve high competitiveness in our business through a systematic approach, as well as to ensure that we are able to make products we can supply to our customers not only in the V4 countries, but also in other business territories. These also include all investors who will come here and will have their portfolio of production based on steel," he responded to a question related to the future and the key position of metallurgy in this region.
Participants in this panel discussion also devoted a good deal of time to the issue of education in the region, on which the standards of productivity, management, quality and product deliveries depend, as well as to the lack of qualified and skilled people in workers professions. It is important to improve apprenticeship training and to rectify the hierarchy of relationships between schools and parents. They also agreed that the way the region and living standard of its citizens will grow depends also on young people not leaving to work elsewhere. University education in the eastern part of the country has a good reputation. As Vice President Miroslav Kiraľvarga mentioned, the region is rich in institutions able to prepare professionals for any investor. He also pointed out the tradition of the Technical University, whose faculties produce graduates for any sector of industry, as well as P. J. Šafárik University, which can very quickly reflect the needs of the market.
The event continued with other panel discussions. The publication ESIG – East Slovakian Investment Guide, a completely new format for presentation of the economic potential of Eastern Slovakia, was introduced for the first time at this forum. In addition to the printed version the website www.esig.sk is also being prepared.
