Slovak Spectator 1739

New road cuts journey times

AFTER years of politically-charged debate over highwayconstruction, a new 46-kilo-metre dual carriageway,dubbed Pribina after a histor-ical Slav, has now been addedto Slovakia’s highway net-work, which over the past twodecades both foreign investorsand Slovak travellers havesorely hoped to see expand

across the country. The stretchof the R1 road connecting Nitrawith Tekovské Nemce is thefirst tangible product of a pub-lic-private partnership (PPP)project. It was constructedover 26 months and carries aprice tag of €800 million.

The Pribina section is thelongest and fastest-builthighway stretch constructedat one time in Slovakia, andhas the heaviest price tag,said Transport Minister JánFigeľ as he ceremoniallyopened the road on October28, after a one-month delay.

“The current governmentand all future governmentsshould continue with signi-

ficant public investments, butin a sustainable mannerwhich is advantageous for thestate,” Figeľ stated.

The ribbon-cutting cere-mony was not free of politicaltension and controversy asFigeľ had invited his prede-cessor, Ľubomír Vážny of theSmer party, to attend eventhough Figeľ from the Christi-an Democratic Movement(KDH) had roundly criticisedVážny for what he called“overpriced” contracts. Thechairman of Smer, RobertFico, was also asked to speakat the ceremony.

See R1 pg 4

SSELECT FOREX RATES€ benchmark as of November 3

CANADA CAD 1.39CZECH REP. CZK 24.91RUSSIA RUB 42.15GREAT BRITAIN GBP 0.86

HUNGARY HUF 302.90JAPAN JPY 107.33POLAND PLN 4.35USA USD 1.38

NEWS

Under-18s get to driveA raft of changes to the roadlaws came into force onNovember 1. Among othernovelties, under-18s arenow allowed to drive, albeitaccompanied by an experi-enced driver.

pg 2

Unlocking the mazeNGOs have launched a newwebsite that aims to make iteasier for the public tobrowse the tens of thou-sands of public-sector con-tracts now online.

pg 3

OPINION

Not much of a showToo little time has passedsince the last elections forthose coming up in March– the usual freakshowaside – to really offer muchin the way of entertain-ment.

pg 5

BUSINESS FOCUS

Banking for the richThe potential size of theSlovak private bankingmarket is estimated to be€6-7 billion, of which onlyone-half is ‘sheltered’ bybanks, meaning the sectorhas considerable poten-tial.

pg 6

Europe's Tobin taxA European Commissionproposal to introduce aEurope-wide financialtransaction tax has receiveda frosty response from theSlovak Finance Ministryand Slovak banks.

pg 6

CULTURE

Jazz Days at InchebaThe Bratislava Jazz Daysfestival took place at theIncheba exhibition centrein late October, with starslike Curtis Stigers and newacts alike thrilling audi-ences.

pg 10

Among the many officials who turned up for the opening of a R1 dual carriageway section near Nitra on October 28were Transport Minister Ján Figeľ (centre right) and opposition leader Robert Fico (far left). Photo: SITA

Low-price stateauction raises doubts

AN ELECTRONIC auction of state-owned platinum mesh has nowbeen added to the list of murky gov-ernment deals. Even though thestate agency responsible for the saleclaims that it acted in line with allthe rules, the opposition Smer partybelieves there was political deal anda cover-up, and a transparencywatchdog group says the govern-ment needs to take further action.

The State Material ReservesAdministration (SŠHR) sold meshcontaining 63,000 grams of platin-um for €668,000 in an electronicauction in July. But TV Markíza,

which broke the story, reported thatthe market price for that amount ofplatinum was around €2.425 mil-lion.

The head of the SŠHR, EvaHrinková, who was apparentlynominated by the governing SlovakDemocratic and Christian Union(SDKÚ) party, resigned on Novem-ber 2 and the government of IvetaRadičová ordered the temporary

suspension of further electronicauctions by the SŠHR.

Prime Minister Radičová, whorecently announced her planneddeparture from the SDKÚ, said at theend of October that there needs to beadditional government regulationscovering electronic auctions, stat-ing that it seemed that someone hadbeen able to “immediately find acrack in how to turn even an elec-tronic auction into a pre-agreeddeal”, as quoted by the SITA news-wire.

See PT pg 2

Vol. 17, No. 39 Monday, November 7, 2011 - Sunday, November 13, 2011On sale nowOn sale now FOCUS

of this issueFOCUSof this issue

BANKING & WEALTH MANAGEMENT

Doctors notbacking

down

WHILE Slovakia’s teachers have curbedtheir rising frustration and announced onNovember 3 that they would continue ne-gotiating with the Education Ministryover salaries rather than striking, the2,000 or more doctors working in state-runhospitals who submitted notices to ter-minate their employment contracts inprotest against conditions within theirhospitals show no signs of backing down.

See GO pg 3

BY BEATA BALOGOVÁSpectator staff

Radičová toleave SDKÚ

IVETA Radičová will leave her current polit-ical party after the early elections nextMarch. Even though by doing so she appearsto be completely exiting politics, some ob-servers say she could still one day becomethe country’s president.

The prime minister of Slovakia’s inter-im cabinet served up her decision in smallpieces – first saying she would not seek to bethe party’s election leader again, then say-ing she would not appear at all on the party’scandidate list for the March 2012 electionsand finally, in late October, announcingthat she would leave her party, the SlovakDemocratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ)once her mandate as prime minister is over.

“I am putting aside the thing that’scalled power,” Radičová said in a televiseddiscussion on TV Markíza on October 30.

See PM pg 9

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Future of highwaysremains uncertain

'Three strikes' ruled constitutional

REPEAT offenders whocommit more than threecrimes can be imprisoned forlife, the Constitutional Courthas ruled in a case over theconstitutionality of the‘three strikes and you’re out’principle, the TASR news-wire reported.

In 2008, the Pezinok Dis-trict Court appealed to theConstitutional Court, seek-ing to have the principle,which was introduced by theamended Penal Code, de-clared unconstitutional. Thecourt referred to the case of arepeat offender identifiedonly as Karol M. who facedcharges of blackmail. Under

the principle, the man was tobe sentenced for life as hehad been convicted for thesame crime in the past, al-though he was only a juven-ile when the earlier convic-tions were secured.

In its ruling, the Consti-tutional Court found that theprinciple does not violate thebasic right not to be torturedand humiliated. Further-more, it found that the ori-ginal complaint was nolonger substantiated as theamendment to the PenalCode did not prescribe onlylife imprisonment, but alsoallows exceptional 20-yearand 25-year sentences.

Teachers will not stage protest

TRADE unions representingteachers and other schoolemployees seeking bettersalaries will not take part in astrike. The reason for theirdecision is that the currentinterim government doesnot have the mandate to ful-fil their requirements, theTASR newswire reported.

“The strike would bepointless,” said the head ofthe trade unions, JozefLužák, after a meeting withcolleagues, adding that eventhough he knows that themajority of teachers are notsatisfied with their salaries,they have to realise that thecurrent government does nothave the power to resolve theissue.

Though the trade unions

did not reach agreementwith the government onhigher salaries for teachers,it is possible that the statewill increase the wages ofnon-teaching employees,such as school caretakers orcleaners, the SITA newswirereported on November 2.

“The government to-gether with Education Min-ister Eugen Jurzyca will tryto find solutions to this prob-lem by the end of the [cur-rent government’s term],”Lužák said after meetingPrime Minister IvetaRadičová on November 2. Thesalaries of non-teaching em-ployees are very close to theminimum wage and the gov-ernment said it would try toaddress this, SITA wrote.

Yaroslavl plane crash inquiry ends

THE INVESTIGATION intothe September plane crashnear Yaroslavl Airport inRussia that killed 44 people,including Slovak ice hockeystar Pavol Demitra, hasended. The investigators an-nounced that the maincauses of the tragedy, whichdevastated the LokomotivYaroslavl ice hockey team,were multiple pilot errors,sedatives in the blood of oneof the pilots, inadequatetraining and a crucial in-strument mix-up, The Mo-scow Times reported onNovember 3.

The results were presen-ted by lead crash investigatorAlexei Morozov and othersfrom Russia’s Interstate Avi-ation Commission, who de-scribed the aircraft’s finalmoments to journalists.

“At least one of the twopilots had his feet on thebrakes as the chartered Yak-42 rolled down the runway,”the investigators said, asquoted by The MoscowTimes. “As a result, the planefailed to gather sufficientspeed, lurching off theground only to crash backdown on the banks of theTunoshonka River half a

kilometre away.”According to the invest-

igators, both pilots had signi-ficantly more experiencewith flying a different type ofplane, the Yak-40, in whichthe pedal used for the brakein the Yak-42 acts as afootrest. The investigatorsconcluded that as a resultone of the pilots did not real-ise he was applying thebrake. They also found thatthe plane’s operators under-estimated the amount of re-training that the pilotsshould have received beforethey began flying the Yak-42while at the same still flyingthe older model.

The investigation alsofound that a barbiturate,phenobarbital, was found inthe co-pilot’s blood. It wasunclear why he was takingthe drug, which is typicallyused to treat seizures andwhose sedative effect mayhave deadened his sensitiv-ity and reaction time in thecrucial seconds when thetakeoff could have been abor-ted, The Moscow Times re-ported.

Compiled by Spectator staff

from press reports

Law change givesyounger drivers a go

YOUNG PEOPLE under the ageof 18 will soon be seen drivingon Slovak roads. As of Novem-ber 1, that is just one of thenumerous changes broughtabout by an amendment tothe law. Also included are sev-eral new rules for drivers toobserve.

Formerly, driving was thepreserve of the over-18s. Now,16-year-olds are eligible to re-ceive driving lessons, and17-year-olds can take a drivingtest and drive on Slovak roads,but only if they are accompan-ied by an adult driver who hasheld a valid licence for at leastten years. Adult co-driversmust also follow all the rulesthat apply to regular drivers,such as those on alcohol con-sumption. And every youngdriver will only be allowed onespecific co-driver, who will beregistered with the police.

The police expect the newrules to have a positive effect,as happened following a sim-ilar change in Germany: adrop in the accident rateamong young drivers by onethird, according to the head ofthe national transport policeMilan Hamar, as quoted by

the Sme daily.Moreover, drinking and

driving is classified as a crim-inal act under the new rules.If a person is caught drivingwith one part or more of alco-hol per thousand of blood, heor she can face up to a year inprison. The same punishment

can be applied to those whorefuse to have their bloodmeasured. If a driver is caughtdrinking and driving threetimes, they will lose theirdriver’s licence for good, thenew rules state.

If a driver causes an acci-dent three times in the course

of five years, or is caughtdrinking and driving twice inthat period, their drivers’ li-cence will be taken away andthey will be obliged to takelessons and pass the drivingtest again.

See ROAD pg 5

PT: Multiple inquiries launchedContinued from pg 1

Smer leader Robert Fico swiftlylatched onto the controversy, which wasfirst reported by TV Markíza on October16, using it to criticise Radičová by sug-gesting that she had covered up what hecalled a party-based transaction eversince the auction was held on July 4.

“Immediately after I learned aboutthe problem from the media, an investig-ation by the Government Office wasinitiated,” Radičová repsonded during apolitical talk show broadcast on Markízaon October 30.

Hrinková said after her resignationthat the row surrounding the platinumsale was just pre-election manoeuvringand that the SŠHR had complied with allthe regulations set by the law on elec-tronic auctions.

The platinum mesh

SŠHR, which administers thecountry’s material reserves, offered thesale of the mesh, consisting of 92 percentplatinum and 8 percent rhodium, in earlyJuly. The price of one gram of platinum atthe time was estimated by TV Markíza tobe €38, while the price for one gram ofrhodium was estimated to be €43.

The broadcaster reported that theplatinum-rhodium alloy could have beensold by the government at €38.50 pergram. However, the highest bid that thestate received in the auction was for€10.60 per gram – one quarter of its truemarket value, according to TV Markíza.

The platinum filters were purchasedby a company called Heneken, whichsubmitted its winning bid only onesecond before the closing of the auction.The owner of the company is reported tobe Michal Hudoba, 27, who was a candid-ate for parliament in 2006 on the SDKÚ

slate. Heneken later sent an explanatorystatement to SITA about its purchaseclaiming that the filters were not of thebest quality, were oxidised and needed tobe chemically cleaned.

Hrinková, the head of the SŠHR since2010, previously served as head of theGovernment Office when MikulášDzurinda was prime minister. Dzurindahas denied that his party was involved inthe sale in any way. The Sme daily wrotein its October 28 edition that both thehead of the selling agency and the pur-chaser are close to the SDKÚ.

Who nominated Hrinková?

The chairman of Freedom and Solid-arity (SaS) party, Richard Sulík, publiclycalled the sale a “theft”. Dzurinda re-sponded that Hrinková had been appoin-ted to her post at the SŠHR by EconomyMinister Juraj Miškov, a member of SaS.

“It is true that political parties offertheir experts to this or that minister butit is always the minister who is respons-ible since he can either accept or rejectsuch a proposal,” stated Dzurinda in aninterview with Markíza.

On October 27 Miškov reacted toDzurinda's comments that the SŠHRcame under the authority of the EconomyMinistry by stating that according to thecountry’s Competencies Act, the SŠHR isunder the remit of the government ratherthan the Economy Ministry and that thechair and deputy chair of the SŠHR servein political functions and not in the roleof experts.

Miškov added that according to thecoalition agreement signed by the fourparties after the general election in 2010,the SDKÚ had the authority to nominatethe SŠHR director, SITA reported.

Fico stated on November 2 that theauction had been manipulated because

the winning bid was submitted by acompany owned by a person who ran onthe SDKÚ slate in 2006 and added thatRadičová should have taken action muchsooner.

Fico said that the actual auction ranfor 20 minutes from 9:00 to 9:20 on July 4and the first bid submitted at 9:03 was for€440,000, that another bid for €600,000came 4 seconds before the close of theauction and this is why he believes thatthe sale was manipulated in some way.The former prime minister added that hesees no legal way for the state to seek thereturn of the platinum.

The Supreme Audit Office, the Officefor the Fight against Corruption and in-spectors from the Government Office arecontinuing to investigate the sale. TheSŠHR cancelled an electronic auction tosell grains of silver that had been sched-uled for November 2 following thegovernment’s order to halt further auc-tions.

The Justice Ministry reported that itis considering ways that the law on elec-tronic auctions could be revised.

“I do care about eliminating doubtsaround electronic auctions, which I con-sider a correct tool for public procure-ment and the sale of state property,”Justice Minister Lucia Žitňanská (SDKÚ)stated, as quoted by SITA.

Zuzana Wienk, the head of Fair-PlayAlliance, a political watchdog group, saidthat the Radičová government took theappropriate steps when it suspended fur-ther sales by the State Material ReservesAdministration, sought to cancel theplatinum sale and accepted Hrinková’sresignation. But Wienk thinks furthermeasures need to be taken.

“Publishing the results of the invest-igation and drawing legal-criminal orother consequences should follow,”Wienk told SITA.

The police expect the new rules to have a positive effect. Photo: Sme - Tomáš Benedikovič

2 NEWSNovember 7 – 13, 2011

NGOs make accessingpublic contracts easier

WATCHDOG groups that dealwith transparency and polit-ical fairness have called lastyear’s law requiring all publiccontracts be published onlinethe most significant anti-cor-ruption measure taken by theoutgoing government of IvetaRadičová. But less than oneyear later, the NGOs believethat the law on its own is notenough and say they arelaunching their own efforts tomake sure the informationgenerated under the law ismore accessible and useableby the general public.

All Slovak state, regionaland municipal offices havebeen required to publish theircontracts, paid invoices andpurchase orders online sinceJanuary 1, 2011, and over85,000 contracts are now lis-ted in the country’s CentralRegistry of Contracts.

The publication of this in-formation, designed toprovide more transparency inhow government entitiesspend public money, hasalready helped the media touncover questionable spend-ing at some Slovak ministriesand state-run companies.Many observers have said itspotential in reducing corruptdealings in government iscomparable to passage ofSlovakia’s law on public ac-cess to information in 2000.

Two non-governmentalwatchdog organisations,Transparency InternationalSlovensko (TIS) and the Fair-Play Alliance, think the law isgroundbreaking and essentialbut they believe the intentbehind the law can be mademore effective if the pub-lished contracts are more ac-cessible to researchers, themedia and ordinary citizens.As a result the two groupshave launched a website,OtvoreneZmluvy.sk, to ac-complish that.

Online – but what then?

“Contracts have been pub-lished online but their monit-oring by the professional pub-lic as well as by ordinary cit-izens has been rather acci-dental and sporadic,” MatejKurian, programme coordin-ator of TIS, told The SlovakSpectator, adding that if thegovernment offices take somuch effort to publish thecontracts then the public

should be able to access themmore easily and examinethem in more detail.

Eva Vozárová of the Fair-Play Alliance believes that thedecision by Radičová’s gov-ernment to publish all statecontracts online was an es-sential first step, but noted aswell that there was not com-plete follow-through.

“The state published itscontracts for citizens to im-prove public oversight,”Vozárová told The SlovakSpectator. “But that will nottake place as long as usersdon’t have the possibility toaccess the contracts in a bar-rier-free way that is easy andintuitive, with a good searchengine and motivation to ac-tually read the contracts.”

The NGOs expectOtvoreneZmluvy.sk toprovide these conditions forinterested citizens. The web-site gathers the documentspublished in the Central Re-gistry of Contracts as well asfrom about 130 other govern-ment entities subject to thelaw, mainly local and regionalself-governments as well asschools. The website then of-fers various tools so that anycitizen can more easily accessand review state orders thatthey are interested in as wellas the actual signed contracts.

Published but not open

Kurian said that it wascommon for many of the con-tracts to be published just tosatisfy the requirements ofthe law and that some insti-tutions did not make it easyto find information. He ex-plained that some institu-tions made sure that a re-searcher would need to un-dertake considerable effort toaccess even basic informa-tion about a contract such aswith whom, for what, and forhow much.

“Finding a specific con-tract among 85,000 contractsin the central register is notsimple at all if one doesn’tknow exactly what one islooking for,” Kurian wrote ina TIS blog in which he calledthe central register “alabyrinth”.

He wrote that parties to acontract sometimes usednames that do not mean any-thing to a layperson (for ex-ample acronyms) or alternat-ively used various differentnames in contracts. The con-tracts also often lack a cleardescription of the subject ofthe contract and the name ofthe contract, Kurian said. Be-cause there is no obligation todescribe the subject or thepurpose of a contract, docu-ment titles are often pub-lished only as ‘Document No.32/64/28', Kurian wrote on theblog. He added that one inevery four contracts currentlypublished in the central re-gister does not clearly statethe monetary value in its ac-companying overview chart.

Crowdsourcing

as a technique

Programmes built intoOtvoreneZmluvy.sk performseveral automatic analyses ofpotential risk factors in a pub-lished contract that thenserve as a tool to pre-selectcertain documents that maybe worth closer reading andexamination, Vozárová toldThe Slovak Spectator. Visitorsto the website can then moreeasily evaluate certain aspectsof a contract and make com-ments on it.

“We believe that it is theconfrontation of various opin-ions and experiences thatmakes public controleffective,” Vozárová stated.

There are now about85,000 contracts accessiblethrough the OtvoreneZmluvy

website and the number willregularly grow. Knowing thathaving only a few eyes ex-amining the huge number ofdocuments would not be veryproductive, the developers ofthe website decided to en-courage use of a techniquecalled crowdsourcing.

Crowdsourcing is best il-lustrated by the approachtaken by Wikipedia in devel-oping its online encyclopae-dia in which anyone cancontribute to the commongoal. This is the approachthat the NGOs hope will en-courage more effective pub-lic examination of contractsthat are published onlineand is the first time theconcept has been used in thisway in Slovakia.

“We were inspired by theway people work with the in-ternet nowadays – they areactive on Facebook and parti-cipate in online discussions,which means they have got-ten used to expressing them-selves if they find itworthwhile,” Vozárová said.

Anyone can take a peek

OtvoreneZmluvy.sk iscurrently operating only as atest version because its de-velopers want to first determ-ine how active its users will beand how they will interactwith the site so that thewebsite’s final version can bemade more user-friendly inthe coming months, accord-ing to Vozárová.

The website is available toeveryone who has an interestin examining how publicfunds are being used, Kuriansaid.

“We hope it will be usedby analysts as well as ordinarycitizens who are interested insome specific areas – eitherstate grants in sport or con-tracts for [the purchase of]stationery,” Kurian stated.

BY MICHAELATERENZANISpectator staff

Contracts published in the central register are hard to access, say NGOs. Photo: Sme - G. Kuchta

GO: Clash with nursesContinued from pg 1

Health Minister Ivan Uh-liarik met with the unionrepresenting the physicianson November 2 only to stateafter the meeting that a fun-damental sticking point re-mained: the doctors insist ona halt to the process of trans-forming the state-run hos-pitals into joint-stock com-panies, while the govern-ment firmly believes thatchanging the hospitals’ legalstatus will improve theirmanagement and financing.

“Our meeting [with theminister] has not moved us asingle step towards with-drawing our notices,” saidMarian Kollár, the chairmanof the Medical Trade UnionsAssociation (LOZ).

Defence MinisterĽubomír Galko, after a meet-ing of the cabinet on Novem-ber 2, said that transforma-tion of state-run hospitalsand medical facilities willcontinue, with the legalstatus of 20 facilities to bechanged before the end of theyear, the SITA newswire re-ported. The minister alsoannounced that these 20hospitals will receive thefunds needed to pay off theircurrent debts. The opposi-tion Smer party is opposed tochanging the hospitals’ legalstatus and made an attemptin parliament in October tokill the process based on aproposal submitted byformer health ministerRichard Raši.

Meanwhile, the doctors’union and the chamber ofnurses and midwives clashedover a piece of draft legisla-tion that would increase thesalaries of nurses, with thedoctors calling it an “unsys-tematic move that discrim-inates against other profes-sional employees in thehealth-care sector”. TheSlovak Medical Chamber alsotabled objections to the draftthat would bring highersalaries for nurses.

At the end of September,2,411 doctors working forstate-run hospitals acrossSlovakia submitted noticesto terminate their employ-ment contracts, which aredue to become effective onDecember 1 after a 60-dayperiod.

Along with stopping thelegal transformation of thehospitals, the doctors wanthigher salaries. Minister Uh-liarik has described theirwage demands as unrealisticwhile the offer on the table

from the state has been re-jected by the doctors.

The transformation issue

The Slovak MedicalChamber called on PresidentIvan Gašparovič, who nowhas a stronger voice in thegoverning process because ofthe restricted mandate of thegovernment since it fell onOctober 11, to halt the trans-formation process. The pres-ident responded that hewants to discuss the issuefurther with the govern-ment, directors of the med-ical facilities and doctors.

Prime Minister IvetaRadičová stated after the cab-inet meeting on November 2that she does not thinkGašparovič has any seriousobjection to continuing thetransformation process,while adding that the gov-ernment and the presidentmust still discuss whether itis necessary to transformsome of the health-care facil-ities, SITA reported.Radičová restated that chan-ging the legal status of thehospitals does not meantheir privatisation. Never-theless, the HospodárskeNoviny economic daily re-ported earlier thatGašparovič had recommen-ded to Radičová that this is-sue should be dealt with bythe government thatemerges after the Marchgeneral election.

How many notices?

Minister Uhliarik andLOZ differ on whether doc-tors have been withdrawingtheir notices. Uhliarik repor-ted on November 2 thatabout 300 doctors had with-drawn their notices to ter-minate their employmentcontracts and stated that thedirectors of the hospitalscurrently have about 2,000while Kollár of LOZ insistedthat the doctors are notchanging their minds.

Kollár stated that thehospitals have 2,386 notices,that only 141 doctors havewithdrawn their notices andan additional 116 doctorshave submitted notices totheir employers, SITA wrote.

The minister warnedthat doctors who did notwithdraw their notices be-fore the end of October mightnever return to their posi-tions because the hospitalswere instructed by him tobegin hiring new staff inNovember.

Hospital doctors plan to continue their protest. Photo: TASR

3November 7 – 13, 2011NEWS

Crowdsourcingtechnique could

find more suspectcontracts

Budget deficit declines year-on-yearTHE CUMULATIVE budget de-ficit for 2011 rose from €2.159billion in September to €2.341billion in October. Comparedto last year, the deficit is now30.6 percent lower, as thebudget gap stood at €3.373 bil-lion in October 2010, the TASRnewswire reported. For thewhole year of 2011 the deficitis projected to reach €3.8 bil-lion, compared to €4.4 billionin 2010.

Budget revenues amoun-ted to €9.311 billion as of Oc-tober, a rise of 9.9 percentyear-on-year. This sum ac-counted for 70.8 percent ofthe figure (€13.148 billion)projected for the year as awhole.

Meanwhile, expendit-ure stood at €11.653 billionas of October, representing afall of 1.6 percent comparedto last year and 68.7 percentof the €16.958 billionplanned for the whole year.

The Finance Ministrystated that in the followingdays they would releaseupdated macroeconomicand tax prognoses whichwould reflect the situationin international financialmarkets.

The ministry hoped toleave the budget deficit tar-get for 2011 unchanged at 4.9percent of GDP, theministry's spokespersonMartin Jaroš stated.

Economic indicator falls againTHE ECONOMIC mood inSlovakia continued to sour inOctober as the Index of Eco-nomic Sentiment (IES)dropped by 0.7 points month-to-month to a level of 89.7points, its lowest point sinceApril 2010, the Statistics Of-fice announced on October28.

The slide in the index waslargely caused by pessimisticassessments among entre-preneurs in the retail andservice sectors as well asmore pessimism expressedby consumers, with con-sumer confidence falling by2.5 points on an annual basis,the TASR newswire reported.

However, the indicator ofconfidence in industrynotched up by 1 percentmonth-on-month in Octoberdue to an expected increasein industrial production overthe next three months. Moreconfidence was also recordedwithin the construction sec-tor in October, rising 7.5points month-on-month to alevel of -37.5 points. But thatfigure remains 13.5 points be-

low the sector’s long-termaverage.

A significant drop in con-fidence in the retail sector inOctober was reported by theStatistics Office, with the in-dicator plunging below itslong-term average for thesecond time this year, TASRwrote.

In terms of the eurozone,the economic sentiment wasmeasured in October 2011 at94.8 points, which is down0.2 points from the 95 pointsit recorded in the previousmonth.

The European Commis-sion published the results ofthe survey on European sen-timent just hours after a keysummit of eurozone leaderswhere they passed a packageof measures to tackle thedebt crisis in the eurozone,the SITA newswire reported.

Some analysts have ar-gued that the agreementprobably came too late toprevent a significant slow-down in economies of theeurozone in the comingmonths, SITA wrote.

J&T to buy shares in Poštová BankaSLOVAKIA’S Poštová Bankawill have a new shareholderas Istrokapital SE, one of thebank’s major shareholders,signed a strategic partnershipagreement with J&T FinanceGroup in which J&T will ac-quire a 9.9-percent stake inthe bank, the TASR newswirereported.

The majority shareholderand the bank’s managementwill take steps prior to J&T’sentry as a shareholder to cre-ate sufficient reserves so thatthe bank can meet the newcapital adequacy require-ments within the eurozone.

Shareholders of PoštováBanka are to decide on an in-crease in share capital to €132million, an increase of €50million, at an extraordinarygeneral meeting scheduledfor December. TASR reportedthat this year’s profit, estim-ated at €90 million, will be al-located to bank reserves that

will also be bolstered withabout €110 million from Is-trokapital SE.

“Poštová Banka willstrengthen its stability evenmore as we consider stabilityto be a key prerequisite forcontinuing our current dy-namic growth,” said MarekTarda, Poštová Banka’s gener-al director, as quoted by TASR.He noted that the measuresthe bank is taking demon-strate the strength of itsshareholders and their abilityto deal with any crisiswithout any outside help.

Poštová Banka, foundedin 1992, is the largest owner ofGreek government bondsamong all Slovak banks andmight face the possibilitythat it could not meet the9-percent capital adequacyratio recently establishedwithin eurozone.


R1: Highway building 'over-politicised'Continued from pg 1

Prime Minister IvetaRadičová was critical of Smer’spresence at the ribbon-cutting,seeing more than an act ofpolitical politeness being be-hind the invitation. Fico re-sponded that he did not under-stand the criticism since theproject had been initiated un-der his government.

“We thank all the govern-ments and parliaments thatdared to enter this project,”stated Speaker of ParliamentPavol Hrušovský of KDH at theceremony, as quoted by theSme daily.

Nevertheless, transporta-tion experts believe that re-moving political gamesman-ship from Slovakia’s highwayconstruction projects wouldimmensely help the countryin completing its backbonesystems.

“The overall problem hasbeen that highway construc-tion is quite a politicised pro-cess and it would greatly helpif the whole process were freedof politics,” Ľubomír Palčákfrom the Transport ResearchInstitute (VÚD) told The Slov-ak Spectator.

Closing the “death route”

Pribina, which links 14municipalities in the Nitra Re-gion with six interchanges and84 bridges, was opened prior tothe annual traffic rush linkedto Slovakia’s All Saint’s Daypublic holiday. The Granviaconstruction consortiumclaimed that the new road willshorten the drive between Ni-tra and Tekovské Nemce by 26minutes. The road is also ex-pected to contribute to roadsafety since the previoussingle-lane road was nick-named the “death route” be-cause of its high number offatal accidents.

The road had been expec-ted to open in late Septemberbut Granvia did not provide allthe required documentationto the ministry on time, a mis-take that will cost the com-pany about €8 million.

The PPP project for the R1dual carriageway has an overalllength of 51.6 kilometres di-vided into four sections: Nitrato Selenec, Selenec to Beladice,Beladice to Tekovské Nemceand a bypass road aroundBanská Bystrica. The first threestretches were opened to trafficon October 28 and the bypassshould be ready in July 2012.Once all the sections are com-pleted, drivers will be able todrive from Bratislava to BanskáBystrica on an uninterrupted,multi-lane road, the SITAnewswire reported.

Granvia won the PPP con-cession and started construc-tion work in 2009. Its total in-vestment for design, construc-tion, operation and mainten-ance of the highways is €1.8 bil-lion, and construction costsmake up €900 million of thatamount. Remuneration to theGranvia consortium, 50-per-cent held by VINCI Conces-sions, will be in the form of an

annual royalty payment ofaround €125 million from thestate for the next 30 years, SITAreported.

PPP only used for the R1

The only PPP project thatresulted in actual constructionof highway stretches is the oneawarded to Granvia for parts ofthe R1 dual carriageway. Thegovernment of Robert Fico hadlaunched three PPP projects butthe incoming Radičová cabinetin 2010 viewed this method offinancing, building and operat-ing highways as too expensiveand completely killed two of theprojects: the so-called first PPPpackage to build five stretches ofthe D1 covering 75 kilometresbetween Martin and Prešov, andthe third PPP package to buildabout 30 kilometres of the D1between Hričovské Podhradieand Dubná Skala near the city ofŽilina. Of the three PPP projects,the third was considered to bethe most technically-demand-ing because it included a tunnelalmost 7.5 kilometres longbetween Višňové and DubnáSkala.

After Figeľ became transportminister, the highway stretchesin the two cancelled PPPprojects were divided into smal-ler portions and individualtenders were announced. Theministry’s stated plan is to com-plete the D1 highway and con-nect Bratislava and Košice witha backbone highway by 2017.

Nevertheless, the fall of theRadičová government and theuncertain outcome of the earlyelections in March 2012 mightsignificantly modify futurehighway plans, with Fico per-haps toying with the idea of re-turning to the PPP method. Atthe moment, the Transport Min-istry is continuing to preparetenders as well initiate highwayconstruction based on its plansfor 2011-2014.

“Highways are not an in-terest of political parties, butprimarily Slovakia’s citizens,”Martin Krajčovič, the ministryspokesperson, said on October20, as quoted by SITA, addingthat the ministry has enoughfunds approved for highwayconstruction projects.

New contracts signed

The construction of anothersection of the D1 highway willstart soon as the state signed a

contract with a €114.6 millionprice tag on November 2.

The contract between theNational Highway Company(NDS) and the Doprastav-Stra-bag consortium covers theconstruction of a 11.2-kilo-metre stretch betweenFričovce and Svinia in PrešovRegion. Doprastav-Strabagwon the public tender with its€114.6 million bid after anoth-er bidder, Hant, was excludedfrom the tender. The construc-tion, which the ministry saidwill cost about €153 millionless than if it had been carriedout via a PPP is expected to befinished in November 2014,the TASR newswire reported.

Earlier this year, the Na-tional Highway Companysigned a contract with theŽilina-based Váhostav-SKconstruction company tobuild an almost 16.5-kilo-metre-long section of the D1highway from Dubná Skala toTurany near the city of Martinin northern Slovakia.

Váhostav-SK, whichsubmitted the lowest bid inthat tender, will build theroad for €137.75 million, ex-cluding VAT, which is 59 per-cent – or nearly €200 millionless – than the initially estim-ated costs at €334.72 million,SITA reported.

The EU Cohesion Fund willfinance 85 percent of the costsand the remaining 15 percentwill come from the statebudget via its OperationalProgramme Transport. Con-struction of the Dubná Skala-Turany section is the most ur-gent of all the yet-to-be-builthighways sections in Slov-akia, SITA wrote.

Financing challenges

“I personally think thatSlovakia has to rely on multi-source financing of its high-ways since today we still havea large share of unfinishedhighways,” Palčák told TheSlovak Spectator. “Based onour calculations we need €20billion for finishing highwaysand dual carriageways.”

Palčák added that the statemust consider how much ithas at its own disposal in thestate budget, as there is per-haps up to €1 billion availablefrom the EU-funded opera-tional programme for high-ways and the state will need tofind other financing sources

for completion of the high-ways and dual carriageways.For this reason, Palčák viewsPPPs as a viable financingmethod that the countryshould certainly use, addingthat highway constructiondebate has been over-politi-cised.

Palčák argued that thedebate over whether the R1sections were over-priced ornot via the PPP method is be-ing made using comparisonsthat are not proper becausethe classic way of financinghighways and the PPP meth-od are quite different and re-quire a more complex analys-is in order to make a validcomparison.

Regarding the sections ofthe D1 that run from Žilinaeastwards, for which a recentcontract has been signed,Palčák does not see any criti-cism from the current opposi-tion or anything that mighthalt the ongoing process.

“I think that for the bene-fit of Slovakia it is important,regardless of the elections, tofinish the ongoing processes[of tenders and construction],”Palčák stated, related tostretches of the D1 fromJánovce to Jablonov and acomplicated section from Tur-any to Dubová nearIvachnová. But constructionof the most difficult but mostimportant section of the D1,from Višňové to Dubná Skala,will take at least five years tocomplete according to Palčák.

“If one wants to talk aboutactually finishing up the D1all the way from Bratislava toPrešov, then it is decisivewhether construction of thissection starts,” Palčák stated,adding that if next year’s elec-tion does not significantly af-fect construction plans thenthe D1 could be completelyfinished by 2017.

PPP analysis manipulated?

Slovakia’s Office for theFight Against Corruption re-cently filed charges against aperson identified only as P.H.for manipulating an analysisof the costs of using a PPPproject for construction of theD1 motorway between Martinand Prešov, Interior MinisterDaniel Lipšic (KDH) an-nounced on October 28.

The analysis was allegedlyfalsified in March 2010 whenthe ministry was headed bySmer nominee Vážny. Theministry had commissionedWood & Company to draw upan analysis comparing thecosts of financing that sectionof the D1 motorway from pub-lic sources with use of the PPPmethod. Lipšic reported thatthe analysis found that usingthe PPP method would cost€546 million more but thatP.H. then manipulated theanalysis so that the differencewas only €29 million, whichresulted in the ministry opt-ing for the PPP project, TASRreported.

Jana Liptákovácontributed to this report

The new section of the R1 is now open. Photo: Sme - Ján Krošlák

4 BUSINESSNovember 7 – 13, 2011

SSS

CONFUSED by the numberand names of local politicalparties? Afraid you’ll get lostin the upcoming electioncampaign? Here is a littleguide to those parties that canbe especially difficult to tellapart:

SaS (Freedom and Solidar-ity) – this is the party that putSlovakia on CNN, BBC and abunch of German televisionstations and scared the hellout of global policy makers.Yes, these are the guys thatbrought down the govern-ment to block the Europeanbailout fund, which theyknew would be approved afew days after they did so. Itmay seem you can’t get anywackier than that. But the listbelow makes them look like agroup of hyper-rationalstatesmen.

SNS (Slovak NationalParty) – if you are looking for aparty run by a notoriousdrunk, whose main agenda isflattening Budapest withtanks and stealing anythingthat isn’t screwed to the wallsof government offices, thenthis is your party of choice.Quality is guaranteed: the SNShas been a part of several co-alitions, and it never fails toperform.

NaS (Nation and Justice) –this is a new project by formerSNS chairwoman AnnaBelousovová. This is not thefirst time the country will seetwo groups of nationalistscompete. With a little luck,history will repeat itself andjust as in 2002 when SNS andPSNS (the Real SNS) faced-off,both will fail to make it intoparliament.

PaS (Law and Justice) –little is known about whatthis is all about. The brother of

a well-known TV anchor, whopreviously had some troublewith the police, is involvedbut it remains to be seenwhether this suffices to makeit big in politics.

SMS (Party of ModernSlovakia) – a former promin-ent member of the HZDS, Mil-an Urbáni chairs the party,but it has decided not to run inthe upcoming elections.

SOS (Party of Citizens ofSlovakia) – a party of athletes.No, seriously, it is a party ofathletes. Hockey players,footballers, cyclists, all differ-ent types of athletes are in-

volved. Just when it seemedkids had too little PE, seniorswere getting too obese, and noone really cared about wherethe new national football sta-dium will stand, here are thepeople to deal with it.

SSS (The Free Word Party)– until now, this acronym wasused by the Slovak Speleolo-gical Society, the SlovakScrabble Association, and thespecialised Waste-DisposalHigh School. Any of these or-ganizations would be betterqualified to run the countrythan the criminally-prosec-uted queen of bad taste, NoraMojsejová, who stands behindthis project. Getting on TVand being able to fantasiseabout parliamentary im-munity are probably high onher list of motivations.

If it seems that many ofthese parties have similarnames, it is not due to a lack ofcreativity. Confusing votersand splitting support is thepoint. As many as five partiesmay find themselves justaround the 5-percentthreshold required to make itinto parliament. So even a fewvotes for the SOS or SSS coulddecide who, in the end, willrun the country.

ROAD: No snow on carsContinued from pg 2

If a driver violates an important road rule(classified according to those that attract finesof €60 or more) three times in the course of oneyear, they must attend a training course, takea driving test and pass a medical and psycho-logical exam.

If a driver is caught with alcohol in theirblood, they will henceforth be obliged to take atest to determine whether they are addicted toalcohol.

New rules apply also to the right of preced-ence on Slovak roads. When leaving a side roadand entering a main road, drivers are now ableto slow vehicles driving along the main road,provided that they do not force vehicles on themain road to change their direction or speedrapidly.

Changes also concern the safe distancethat drivers should maintain between eachvehicle. Previously the distance was measuredin metres, but under the new rules it will be

measured in time. Cars must keep a distance oftwo seconds at least, while trucks are requiredto keep a three-second distance between themand other vehicles.

It is no longer permitted to overtake an-other car on a pedestrian crossing. Stopping ona pedestrian crossing is also prohibited, withthe exception of certain cases when stoppingis inevitable.

Cyclists now have precedence when turn-ing left or right.

Drivers are no longer allowed to operatetheir vehicle if it is covered by snow or ice – in-stead, they must remove all snow and ice be-fore setting off.

And while drivers over 65 previously had tobe examined by a physician once every twoyears before they could drive a car, they arenow required to undergo a medical examina-tion only every five years.

By Michaela Terenzaniwith press reports

Too soon to really entertainIT IS now showtime in Slov-akia for every kind of politicalexhibitionist. As the electionsapproach, an assortment ofpolitical deviants – fromfossils of the communist re-gime, to noisy buffoons, topeople whose names areeither remembered for asingle spectacular failure orhave long-since been forgot-ten – emerge from the wood-work of the public arena.

The prospect of powerwill lure onto the hustingsthose who appear in four-year cycles for yet anothershot at getting elected. This isthe time for those smallparties of breakaways wholeft either over a petty quarrelafter their personal ambi-tions were unfulfilled – orspoke out against their leaderin a party where such prac-tice are not tolerated.

If such a showcase of ambi-tion and lack of self-reflectionwere to come only once everyfour years it might be enter-taining to some degree. Butthis election campaign comesfar too soon for the weary anddisillusioned electorate ofSlovakia. As a result, few ex-pect to see a repeat of the post-election euphoria that fol-lowed the victory of the centre-right parties in 2010.

And even if the politicalright, with all its egos and dif-ferences of opinion, garnersenough votes to match thesupport that opposition leaderRobert Fico and his Smer partylook set to collect, the memoryof right-leaning voters will notbe short enough to forget howtheir parties have handledtheir time in power and thehope entrusted to them: bymanoeuvring the country intoearly elections.

This will not be the soledifference compared to elec-tions past: the largest rulingcoalition party, the SlovakDemocratic and ChristianUnion (SDKÚ), will be led byMikuláš Dzurinda, whosepolitical-biological clock hasbeen ticking for some time.Dzurinda, who has made anundeniable contribution to

setting Slovakia on its cur-rent pro-European track, hasrefused to hear the tickingsound. Even when forced in2010 by the returning ghostsof murky party financing tostand aside in favour of IvetaRadičová, he never yielded

the leadership of the party hehad founded, and thus helpeddeny her the unambiguoussupport of the largest rulingparty – something that noprime minister can easilygovern without.

Even though politicianssay polls are capricious andthat they do not shape theirpolicies, in fact they do influ-ence how politicians talk andwhat they say. The most re-cent poll, conducted after thefall of the government by theMVK polling agency, givesSmer a commanding lead,with 37.5 percent of the vote.The SDKÚ trails a distantsecond on 11.6 percent, welldown from the 15.42 percentthe party collected in the lastelection. Freedom and Solidar-ity (SaS), the party which didthe most to bring down thegovernment by refusing toback the ratification ofchanges to the eurozone bail-out fund or express confidencein the Radičová government,would score 10.9 percent, fol-

lowed by the Christian Demo-cratic Movement (KDH) on 9.5percent and Most-Híd with 8.2percent. No other party in theMVK poll would clear the5-percent threshold needed tomake it into parliament.

So it is already clear thatall the rejections and exclu-sions of partners that theseparties have exchanged – therest of the ruling-coalitiontowards SaS; SDKÚ and SaS toSmer; KDH to Smer – are un-likely to endure and mighteasily be washed away afterthe election results raindown on the parties.

Of course the dwarfs andthe hyper-ambitious “newpoliticians” can pick upsome votes here and there,and weaken one or other ofthe right-wing parties de-pending on the tone they setfor the campaign. But thekey decisions will certainlybe in the hands of the estab-lished parties.

Which leaves many voterswith a dilemma: what guar-antee is there, even if thecentre-right parties manageto push their party interestsaside and put together thenumbers necessary to form agovernment, that in a mo-mentary lapse of reason andsurge of self-importance over-shadowing the broader publicinterest they will not discardthe trust placed in them andrepeat the whole fiasco again?

As the campaign trainnow starts puffing, all kindsof figures are jumping on thewagons. Members of someparties, such as the CivicConservative Party (OKS)seem to be joining three dif-ferent wagons: the OrdinaryPeople group – which cannoteven use its original nameany more because it has been‘stolen’ by another politicalbody – Most-Híd and SaS. Butwith voters this tired, theprospect of electoral enter-tainment is feeble compens-ation for their dilemmaabout whom to vote for,lingering as it does like theprospect of a hangover afteran all-night party.

5November 7 – 13, 2011OPINION / NEWS

SLOVAK WORDOF THE WEEK

EDITORIAL


BY LUKÁŠ FILASpecial to the Spectator

Milan Urbáni left HZDS to found SMS. Photo: Sme - Ján Krošlák

“We will certainly not throw ourselves on the rails.If others agree to it, we will not veto it.”

Finance Minister Ivan Mikloš comments on the introductionof a proposed financial transaction tax within the EU.

The Slovak Spectator is an independent newspaper published every Monday by The Rock, s.r.o. SSubscriptions: Inquiries should be made to The SlovakSpectator’s business office at (+421-2) 59 233 300. Printing: Petit Press a.s. Distribution: Interpress Slovakia s.r.o., Mediaprint-kapa s.r.o., Slovenská po‰ta a.s. Mail Distribution: ABOPRESS. EV 544/08. © 2010 The Rock, s.r.o. All rights reserved. Any reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited by law. The authors of articles published in this issue, represented by the publisher, reserve the right to give their approval for reproducing and public transmission of articles marked ©The Slovak Spectator, aswell as for the public circulation of reproductions of these articles, in compliance with the 33rd article and 1st paragraph of the Copyright Law. Mediamonitoring is provided by Newton, IT, SMA and Slovakia Online with the approval of the publisher. Advertising material contained herein is the responsibility of the advertiser and is not a written or implied sponsorship, endorsement or investigation of such commercial enterprises or ventures byThe Slovak Spectator or The Rock s.r.o. ISSN 1335-9843. Address: The Rock, s.r.o., Lazaretská 12, 811 08 Bratislava. IâO: 313 86 237.

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Profits for Slovak banks rise 54 pct

SLOVAKIA’s banking sector posted after-tax profits of€590.66 million for the first three quarters of 2011, a jumpof 53.9 percent compared to the same period in 2010, theNational Bank of Slovakia announced on October 31, asreported by the SITA newswire.A decline in costs associated with loans in default wasparticularly behind the improved profitability and set-asides for problematic retail loans dropped the most. Thenet amount set aside for loan reserves decreased by 56.6percent to €113.44 million.In addition the banks reported more loans to householdsand a consequent increase in interest income. Netinterest income went up 8 percent, to €1.351 billion,compared to last year, while net income from fees andcommissions increased 4.3 percent to €343.42 million.The largest bank in Slovakia, Slovenská Sporiteľňa,reported an after-tax profit of €146.65 million for the firstnine months of the year, 47 percent more than last year.“Profit growth resulted particularly from rising volumeof trade by our clients and our cost discipline,“ saidSlovenská Sporiteľňa CEO Jozef Síkela.Tatra Banka doubled its nine-month post-tax profits to€121.75 million due to growth in net interest income anda considerable drop in provisions for bad loans. VÚBBanka’s post-tax profit for the first three quarters rose by38.2 percent to €134.26 million.

Slovak banks shed staff

FIVE foreign banks have launched operations in Slovakiasince mid-2010, bringing the total number of foreignbank branches operating in the country to 15 at the end ofJune this year, the TASR newswire reported based oninformation released by the National Bank of Slovakia.AXA-Bank Europe and BKS Bank were among thenewcomers, while Komerční Banka and Fio SavingsCooperative changed their legal status to becomebranches of foreign banks. The number of employeesworking for foreign banks increased from 518 in March2009 to 779 in June 2011.The number of banks registered as domestic banksdecreased by one to 11. The number of employees hasbeen falling in banks that are registered as domesticbanks rather than branches of foreign banks. In March2009 19,796 people were working in domestic banks andthe number fell to 17,561 in June 2011. The National Bankof Slovakia, which is not included in these statistics, had1,070 employees in June 2011.


Some banks active in Slovakia

Retail banks:Československá Obchodná Banka (ČSOB), www.csob.skDexia Banka, www.dexia.skING Bank, www.ingbank.skOberbank, www.oberbank.skOTP Banka Slovensko, www.otpbank.skPoštová Banka, www.pabk.skSaxo Bank, sk.saxobank.comSlovenská Sporiteľňa, www.slsp.skTatra Banka, www.tatrabanka.skUniCredit Bank Slovakia, www.unicreditbank.skVolksbank Slovensko, www.volksbank.skVÚB Banka, www.vub.sk

Banks active in private banking:J&T Banka, www.jt-bank.skPrivatbanka, www.privatbanka.skSlovak Representative Office, Banque Privée Edmondde Rothschild Europe, www.groupedr.sk

Direct banks:mBank, www.mbank.skZuno, www.zuno.sk


Catering to thewealthiest clients

PRIVATE banking is one sec-tor which, at least in theSlovak banking business, hasa relatively short history.Under communism, ofcourse, the idea of a non-state-owned bank thatcatered solely to very wealthyclients would have been pre-posterous. But nowadaysSlovakia has three banks thatfocus on private banking, aswell as several retail banksthat provide specialised ser-vices to their wealthiest cli-ents. Since the potential sizeof the Slovak private bankingmarket is estimated to bebetween €6 billion and €7 bil-lion, of which only one-halfis ‘sheltered’ by banks, ana-lysts regard this sector hashaving considerable poten-tial.

The current unstable eco-nomic situation, even thoughit differs from the crisis yearsof 2008 and 2009, is also re-flected in the behaviour andexpectations of private bank-ing clients, who are nowmore cautions.

“Private banking clientsare seeking support and solu-

tions to protect their assets,”Svetlana Dankovičová, seniorvice president of the Slovakand Czech office of BanquePrivée Edmond de RothschildEurope, told The Slovak Spec-tator. “From the point of viewof our bank or our clients thecrisis is far from over.”

She added that the

policies currently being adop-ted represent postponementof the problems rather thantheir solution and thus theprimary interest of her cli-ents lies in protecting theirassets and maintaining theirvalue.

See TOP pg 8

BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁSpectator staff

Some wealthy Slovaks are investing in gold. Photo: Reuters

Slovak doubts over EC-proposedfinancial transaction tax

A FINANCIAL transaction tax, alsoknown also as a Tobin tax or Robin Hoodtax, is on the table again. In late Septem-ber the European Commission adoptedplans to introduce a financial transactiontax (FTT) from January 2014, which ithopes will be extended worldwide. Theproposal has attracted varying responsesand is expected to be discussed duringthe G20 summit of the largest global eco-nomies starting November 3. Slovakia’sstance is negative, at least for now.

“In the last three years, memberstates have granted aid and providedguarantees of €4.6 trillion to the finan-cial sector,” European Commission Pres-ident Jose Manuel Barroso said in hisState of the Union speech in theEuropean Parliament in Strasbourg onSeptember 28, as quoted by Reuters. “It istime for the financial sector to make acontribution back to society.”

The EU’s executive, the EuropeanCommission, formally adopted plans onSeptember 28 for a financial transactiontax to begin in January 2014. The taxwould be levied on all transactions in-volving financial instruments betweenfinancial institutions in which at least

one party to the transaction is located inthe EU, the EC wrote in its press release.The exchange of shares and bonds wouldbe taxed at a rate of 0.1 percent and de-rivative contracts, at a rate of 0.01 per-cent. The EU estimates that the tax couldraise approximately €57 billion per year.

The EC put forward two reasons forthe new tax: to ensure that the financialsector makes a fair contribution at a timeof fiscal consolidation in member states,and that a coordinated framework at theEU level would help to strengthen the EUsingle market.

“The financial sector played a role inthe origins of the economic crisis,” theEC wrote in its press release, referring tothe first reason. “Governments andEuropean citizens at large have borne thecost of massive taxpayer-funded bailoutsto support the financial sector. Further-more, the sector is currently under-taxedby comparison with other sectors. Theproposal would generate significant ad-ditional tax revenue from the financialsector to contribute to public finances.”

Referring to the second reason, theEC wrote that 10 member states alreadyhave some form of a financial transac-tion tax in place.

“The proposal would introduce newminimum tax rates and harmonise dif-ferent existing taxes on financial trans-actions in the EU,” the EC wrote. “This

will help to reduce competitive distor-tions in the single market, discouragerisky trading activities and complementregulatory measures aimed at avoidingfuture crises. The financial transactiontax at the EU level would strengthen theEU’s position to promote common rulesfor the introduction of such a tax at aglobal level, notably through the G20.”

The revenues of the tax would beshared between the EU and memberstates. Part of the tax would be used tofund the EU and reduce national contri-butions.

While France and Germany may pushfor an FTT to be introduced in the euro-zone, the United Kingdom, the UnitedStates and other G20 member states in-cluding China, Canada and Russia areopposed.

Slovakia has not decided

While Slovakia has not taken an offi-cial position on the proposal, its reactionso far has been relatively negative.

The Slovak Finance Ministry says it isnow preparing a response to the EC pro-posal, which it says is relatively freshand has thus not been subject to anydeeper discussion from either a technicalor a political viewpoint.

See FTT pg 9


6

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Next issue:BUSINESS FOCUS

BANKING & WEALTH MANAGEMENT

November 7 – 13, 2011

Private bankinggrows in Slovakia

Diversification is the answerfor investments

Survey finds Slovaks have lowfinancial literacy

A card for the chosen few

EARLIER this year UniCreditBank became the first bankin Slovakia to offer chosenprivate clients the prestigi-ous international VISA In-finite card.

The exclusive cardclaims to merge luxury withdiscretion, and offers topproducts provided by VISA.

For the time being onlyaround 360 Slovaks hold thecard because it is limited toselected clients invited toapply by the bank, UniCred-it Bank said in a press re-lease.

VISA Infinite enables itsholders to use UniCreditBank’s concierge service.This round-the-clock assist-ant includes services likecomprehensive travel in-surance, legal assistance, in-terpreting, and medical ser-vices, through to booking ahotel or restaurant, orderinga limousine, obtaining a taxi

at very short notice or order-ing a gift.

According to RaymondKopka, director of privatebanking at UniCredit Bankin Slovakia, customers haveused the concierge service,aside from financial ser-vices, for freeing a dog froma locked car, arranging aNew Year party near the Co-losseum in Rome, booking agolf course in Dubai, as wellas obtaining a sold-out book.

The card also providesUnicredit Bank clients withautomatic access to PriorityPass, the world’s largest in-dependent airport loungeaccess programme.

The card holder, as wellas his guests, can use anyone of 600 VIP airportlounges at 325 airportsaround the world.


from press reports

A hedge fund opportunity in Slovakia

SINCE the beginning of Julyprofessional investors inSlovakia have been able toinvest in Polaris Alpha, ahedge fund created by theinvestment company Polar-is Finance SICAV plc. Its ex-clusive distribution partneris Across Wealth Manage-ment, the latter informedThe Slovak Spectator in apress release.

Polaris Alpha is the firstopen-ended hedge fund to belaunched by Polaris Finance.Its goal is to generate an ab-solute return of 10 percentper annum regardless ofmovements in financialmarkets.

According to JúliusStrapek, the director of Po-laris Finance and the man-aging partner of AcrossWealth Management, theneed to create the fund arosefrom the current situationin the market.

“Turbulence in financialmarkets over recent yearsnegatively affected the port-folios of clients,” Strapeksaid, as quoted in the AcrossWealth Management pressrelease. “Thus solutions areincreasingly sought thatwill protect capital and se-cure positive yields inde-pendently of the develop-ment of financial markets.”

The investment strategyof a hedge fund focuses,aside from traditional tools,on financial derivativessuch as futures and options.It uses these to manage riskmore effectively and the in-vestment strategy is basedespecially on technical ana-lysis, according to the firm.

“The fund focuses on twobasic approaches to man-agement of a portfolio,”Branislav Habán, director ofPolaris Finance and portfoliomanager, explained.

Within its growth com-ponent small volumes in theform of futures and optionsare systematically traded ina high frequency on the pre-condition that the trend ofthe market is recognised.

The stabilisation com-ponent focuses on maintain-ing the value of the portfoliovia classical tools in the fin-ancial and bond market,stocks, stock indices andcommodities.

An important part of thisapproach is diversificationnot only among variouskinds of investment toolsbut also at the level of thedecision-making processand independent decisionsby the investment managerswho are investing the alloc-ated portion of the portfolio.

Diversification is theanswer for investments

THE RECENT economic crisis,the threat of its return, aswell as questions about thefuture of the eurozone havepresented people who arelucky enough to have moneywith an extra dilemma: aswell as the normal quest forgrowth, they must worryabout how to protect theirfinancial assets. Banks haverecommended that clients di-versify their investments,while customers have becomemore conservative, preferringsafety over high yields.

“2008 was exceptional inthat Slovak clients were notprepared for the lecturewhich the markets had pre-pared for them,” MichaelaKaňová, the director of ErstePrivate Banking, told TheSlovak Spectator. Her unit,which is part of Slovakia’sbiggest bank, SlovenskáSporiteľňa, provides privatebanking services, i.e. adviceand financial products towealthy clients. “Since thattime most people have reas-sessed their investmentgoals, made their expecta-tions more realistic, and ad-apted their position to therisk.”

According to Kaňová, cli-ents are now asking manymore questions and want tounderstand more. They ob-serve the markets and knowthat every crisis eventuallycomes to an end.

VÚB Banka confirmedthat, compared to the pre-crisis period, private bankingclients are both more cau-tious, and require more in-tensive communication. Butit says some clients have usedthe turbulence on financialmarkets to turn a profit.

“With the arrival of thecrisis in 2008, clients accededto a compromise solution, i.e.they transformed their morerisky assets into safer ones,but with lower yieldpotential,” BlaženaStrečanská, the head ofprivate banking at VÚBBanka, told The Slovak Spec-tator. Adding that the currentsituation is different com-pared to when the crisis firstarrived in 2008, she said thatthis summer it was not neces-sary to transfer assets withinclients’ portfolios to quite thesame extent.

Banks describe the typicalSlovak client as rather con-servative, something which is

also reflected in the type ofproducts they choose.

The experience of ČSOBconfirms the interest in moreconservative products, suchas savings accounts, term de-posits, mutual funds and in-vestments like gold, accord-ing to Miroslav Paulen, dir-ector of ČSOB’s private bank-ing division.

On the other hand, ac-cording to VÚB, there are alsoclients who conversely investin shares and various ETF cer-tificates, according toStrečanská. VÚB is also regis-tering increased popularity invarious forms of guaranteedstructures, which secure theclient a return on the moneyinvested along with the pos-sibility to participate in thegrowth of stock markets.Portfolios are supplementedby investments in commodit-ies, precious metals, art(paintings, jewellery and an-tiques) but also specialitiessuch as coin or stamp collec-tions, according toStrečanská.

Kaňová said that solutionsprovided to conservative cli-ents need to offer gains aboveinflation, but at minimumrisk.

“The key to minimisinginvestment risk is to diversifyinvestments in combinationwith a proper identification ofthe client’s attitude to the riskinvolved,” Kaňová said,adding that the bank appliesthis approach during times ofeconomic growth as well ascontraction. Many clients, inorder to diversify, are alsoturning to gold. “For these cli-ents nothing fundamentalchanged during the falls.”

UniCredit Bank Slovakia isalso recommending that itsprivate clients diversify theirportfolios in terms of assetclass and duration, accordingto Raymond Kopka, directorof private banking at Uni-Credit Bank Slovakia.

“Apart from this we havealso registered an interest ininvesting in gold,” Kopka toldThe Slovak Spectator, adding

that this kind of investmentshould not be understood as atool to get rich but as a kind ofsafeguard for worse times.Apart from investments ingold, the bank has also recor-ded increased interest incommemorative and collec-tion coins, as these are lim-ited issues and their valuetends to keep growing.

The banks offer an extens-ive ranking of products in theform of open architecture, i.e.they do not offer only theirown products or those of theirparent banks.

“In practice this meansthat we are not offering cli-ents only our own products orthose of our parent [bank] butare also trying to find forthem the most profitable al-ternatives in the secondarymarket,” said Strečanská. “Wecan mediate all existing kindsof investments in which theyshow an interest except thosewhich represent an inappro-priate risk.”

VIP clients in retail banks

In Slovakia there are noprecise statistics about eitherthe number of private bank-ing clients or their assets. Thepotential size of the Slovakmarket is estimated to bebetween €6 billion and €7 bil-lion, of which only one half is‘sheltered’ by banks. Thismeans that there is very con-siderable potential for growthin the sector. The number ofclients wealthy enough to be-nefit from private bankingservices is estimated to bebetween 10,000 and 40,000, or2-3 percent of the population.Most retail banks with privatebanking services say that theminimum amount needed toqualify for their services is€200,000, but say other cli-ents with what they call “realprospects” are sometimesconsidered.

“The level of minimumassets ranks in Slovakiabetween €30,000 and€400,000,” said Strečanská.“In general, regardless of the

crisis, this level has been con-tinually increasing as has theaverage volume of funds ofclients.”

Strečanská pointed outthat if a client has less money,it is difficult to secure properdiversification and quality ofinvestments.

For Erste Private Bankingthe minimum amount neces-sary to be considered as aprivate client is €200,000, butthe average private client ex-ceeds this level by severaltimes, Kaňová told The SlovakSpectator. She added thatpeople whose prospects sug-gest they will be able to meetthis criterion in a short periodof time can also become cli-ents. Such people includethose who use private bank-ing services in other banks,have sound incomes, or havetemporarily invested theirmoney in real estate, amongothers.

“Growth in clients isbound to the growth of theeconomy,” Kaňová said. “Er-ste Private Banking’s portfoliogrew by over 20 percent dur-ing 2011.”

ČSOB is keeping itsprivate banking minimum at€200,000 too, although it maybe lowered if the bank seesreal prospects for an increase,according to Paulen. ČSOB hasabout 1,700 private clientswhose assets total €720 mil-lion, and the figure has grownover the last five years, thebank reported.

VÚB reports annualgrowth in assets admin-istered by its private bankingdepartment as being over 20percent for the last threeyears, while the number ofsuch clients has increased at asimilar pace. According toStrečanská, growth slowedduring the crisis – the bankreported per annum increasesof between 30 and 35 percentbefore it struck – but she saidthat in 2010 growth again ex-ceeded 25 percent.

In VÚB and UniCreditBank, which has now beenproviding private bankingservices for more than sixyears in Slovakia, the cri-terion to become a private cli-ent are assets exceeding€300,000.

“Private banking as weknow it in western Europe, isin some areas still only in di-apers in Slovakia,” said Kop-ka, adding that inheritanceconsultancy in particular isunderrated in Slovakia. “Thepositive thing is that privatebanking in Slovakia has hugepotential and belongs amongthe most dynamically devel-oping segments of the bank-ing sector. It is on course tocome closer to the averageamong European countries,where the number of suchpersons ranks among 2-3 per-cent of the population.”


Antiques and art are investment vehicles. Photo: Sme

7

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Slovaks have low financial literacy

SLOVAKS say they are quiteconfident about their finan-cial knowledge and ability tohandle money but a recentsurvey found that their fin-ancial literacy is quite low.The results of a survey con-ducted by the ING financialgroup were that eventhough almost one-third ofSlovaks believe they areknowledgeable about finan-cial issues, only 12 percentactually had good or excel-lent financial skills, theSITA newswire wrote in lateOctober.

According to ING, with88 percent of its citizenshaving either poor or onlybasic financial knowledge,Slovakia was in last placeamong the 12 countries inAmerica, Europe and Asiawhere the survey was con-ducted in May 2011.

“We did not expect anybreakthrough results inSlovakia but that we wouldend up in last place was ahuge surprise for us,” Ren-

ata Mrázová, the directorgeneral of ING for insuranceand pensions, said as quotedby SITA. “Even Mexicanswere ahead of us.”

Slovaks had the biggestproblem in answering ques-tions about savings as only37 percent of those surveyedwere able to calculate the ac-tual interest rate in theproblem they were given. 42percent of the respondentswere able to answer ques-tions on investments cor-rectly and 48 percent passedthe part of the survey deal-ing with loans and credit.

The Slovaks in the surveyfinished behind respondentsfrom countries such as Mex-ico (19 percent with good orexcellent financial skills)and the Czech Republic (21percent). The Japanese wereat the top of the list, with 44percent having good or ex-cellent financial skills.


from press reports

Slovaks’ savings rate is high in 2011

SLOVAKS are more likely toput aside some portion oftheir current income nowthan they were in the past.In the crisis year of 2009Slovaks’ saving rate reachedalmost the highest level forthe last decade and was thenfollowed by only a moderatedecrease, according to MarekGábriš, an analyst withČSOB bank, as reported bythe SITA newswire.

“Based on the first sixmonths of 2011 it is possibleto assume that the rate ofsavings will exceed the max-imum reached so far and be-come the highest for the last10 years,” Gábriš stated.

Slovaks were saving lessthan 4 percent of their in-come in mid-2008 but thishad risen to 6.5 percent bymid-2011. When personalsavings in Slovakia’s pensionpillars are taken into ac-count, the savings rate is 8.8percent, according to Mária

Valachyová, an analyst withSlovenská Sporiteľňa bank.

ČSOB reported that it ap-pears that most Slovaks arewilling to put aside about 10percent of their income.

Another survey conduc-ted by IMAS agency on behalfof Slovenská Sporiteľňaamong 505 respondents inJuly and August found thatthe average Slovak puts aside€89 every month and thatmore than half of the re-spondents regularly savesome money each month.

Slovenská Sporiteľňa re-ported that 90 percent of therespondents said their mainreason for saving regularly isto have financial security inthe event of need, whileabout 70 percent savedmoney so they could buysomething in the future.More than one-half of re-spondents said they werealso saving for retirement orto retire earlier.

TOP: Market normalisingContinued from pg 6

The bank has traditionallybeen profiled as conservativeand the current situation inthe economy and politics hastended to strengthen thisphilosophy, putting morestress on security.

A similar trend is also vis-ible at other banks special-ising in private banking.

Michal Šubín, director ofprivate banking at Privat-banka, part of Penta Invest-ments Limited, sees the cur-rent situation as differentfrom that in 2008, as the2008-2009 crisis arrived veryunexpectedly for many in-vestors and resulted in signi-ficant drops in asset values.Moreover, it arrived after along period of growth whichhad lasted since 2003.

“This meant it was thefirst time that many privateclients had experienced suchan intense crisis,” Šubín said,adding that the decline in 2011was preceded by constantnervousness and increasedvolatility on all markets.“These impacts and declinescould be avoided to a certainextent; it was enough to besceptical about developmentswhich basically answerednone of the questions raisedby the crisis of 2008-2009.”

In J&T Banka, part of theJ&T financial group, clientsare now more interested inthemes related to the future ofcurrencies, especially the euroand the US dollar.

“We are now discussingmore the strategy for alloca-tion of assets and multi-gen-erational administration,”Andrej Zaťko, sales director atJ&T Banka, told The SlovakSpectator. “So it is not onlyabout what is waiting for usover the next few months oryears; clients are much morecarefully addressing the fu-ture horizon over severaldecades.”

According to Zaťko, someclients have lost trust inmoney and are trying to con-vert all their assets into realestate or commodities. He be-lieves that it is not necessaryto exaggerate the situation,but adds that a more signific-ant diversification of assets isappropriate.

Šubín added that the cur-rent situation also bringssome interesting opportunit-ies, which may in the futuregenerate higher yields thanthose offered by standard in-vestment tools.

Private banking grows

Both Privatbanka and J&TBanka are currently reportingdouble-digit growth.

“Our bank has been grow-ing by tens of percents annu-ally in the segment of privateand premium banking,” Zaťkosaid. “During the crisis periodgrowth was even more signi-ficant than during the pre-crisis years. We expect thistrend to continue.”

Zaťko pointed out that theprivate banking market inSlovakia is becoming morenormal.

“In Slovakia, as abroad,there are specialised banksand retail banks which haveprivate banking only as part oftheir range of services,” saidZaťko, adding that the differ-ence, when comparing Slov-akia with Switzerland, for ex-ample, is that there are stillfewer products prepared espe-cially for private clients.“This, to a certain extent, islinked to the fact that theSlovak client differs some-what from the Western one interms of his needs as well ashis experiences.”

Šubín of Privatbankaagreed, saying that since theprivate banking market is anew market, which emergedin Slovakia only after the fallof the communist regime, itneeds time to mature.

“Clients as well as bankershave to gain experience,” saidŠubín. “Countries in whichprivate banking now hassome history behind it havealso experienced this stage.”

Dankovičová does not ex-pect any significant changesin private banking in Slovakiain the very near future, whilefrom the longer-term point ofview she expects greateropenness in the banking sec-tor towards open architecturefor clients’ portfolios.

Retail versus private

Private banking is aboutproviding highly tailored top-level services to better-off cli-ents. While in Slovakia, forhistorical reasons, these aremostly people who have ac-cumulated assets since the fallof the communist regime in1989, in countries with alonger history of private bank-ing this target group also in-cludes people who have inher-ited much of their wealth.This difference is also reflec-ted in the differing require-ments of Slovak clients andtheir expectations.

Private banks say theydo not regard retail banks ascompetitors in private bank-ing.

“Retail banks are doing anexcellent job in the privatebanking segment,” saidDankovičová. “But their cli-entele is not comparable withours and thus also their activ-ities cannot be perceived asdirect competition. Care forprivate clients in retail banksvery often lays in presentingand selling the products ofthe bank in question. In thecase of private banks at ques-tion is comprehensive carefor the client and his assets,including tax and legal con-sultancy, design of the op-timal structure of all firmspossessed by the client, estab-lishment of companiesaround the world, etc.”

Šubín and Zaťko agreedthat the services they provideto their clients are different.

“In private banking theapproach is different,” saidŠubín, adding that privateclients can get access viatheir private banker to in-vestment tools which areonly available to a small circleof investors. “Simultaneouslyhe gets access to investmentprofessionals who manageinvestment portfolios andcan also find one-off oppor-tunities for a small circle ofprivate clients.”

According to Šubín, ad-ministration of finances isnot only about yields, but alsoabout asset protection.

“Private banking is notabout a one-off product, butabout a proper understandingof the complex wishes of theclient, a proper setting for theportfolio and an understand-ing of how the financial mar-kets work,” said Šubín. “Thisis the primary task of theprivate banker.”

Zaťko pointed out thatthe basic orientation of J&TBanka is investment andprivate banking, and saysthe whole infrastructure ofthe bank is designed withthis in mind.

“All services and productsare focused on our targetgroup, which is made up ofmore affluent clients,” saidZaťko. “They are demanding,and are used to the highestlevel of services, which mustbe competitive. The main dif-ference, apart from our pre-paredness to deal with themost varied needs of clients,is our comprehensive offer ofbanking, investment as wellas non-financial services.”

According to Zaťko, thenon-financial services offeredto private clients are world-class, and include tax and leg-al services, purchase of worksof art, and holiday and leisure-time planning.

“In most cases this isabout relationships andcontacts,” said Zaťko. “Cli-ents always appreciate ad-vantages which cannot bebought easily.”

Privatbanka, for example,says it pays considerable at-tention to health services, in-cluding access to better-than-average care, while its clientsalso have access to compre-hensive concierge services,according to Šubín.

But Dankovičová said theexperience of Banque PrivéeEdmond de Rothschild Europeis that that its Slovak clients,like its customers elsewhere,do not place great stress onthe non-financial benefitsoffered by the bank.

“Clients of a private bankprimarily expect quality ser-vices in the administration oftheir property, and absolutediscretion,” Dankovičovásaid. “They do not need theirbank to organise their holi-days or their free time forthem.”

She said that her bankdoes provide a Family Officeservice, which offers clients,among other things, helpwith moving house, assist-ance when buying real es-tate, boats and aircraft, whenbuying, selling and restruc-turing companies, and whenbuying and selling artworksand commodities.

Each client – and their money – gets individual treatment. Photo: Sme

8 BUSINESS FOCUSNovember 7 – 13, 2011

FOCUS shorts

PM: Dzurinda takes overContinued from pg 1

Radičová for president?

Radičová announced at ameeting of the SDKÚ CentralCouncil held in Zvolen on Oc-tober 29 that she will officiallyresign from the party after itsnext congress, which is expec-ted to take place soon after thegeneral election. She said she isaccepting the political con-sequences for hergovernment’s fall, but addedthat the internal situationwithin the SDKÚ was amongher reasons as well.

Speaking on TV Markíza,she specifically mentioned “adivergent understanding ofwhat morals and decency inpolitics is” while commentingon the SDKÚ’s internal affairs.She then added: “I am not say-ing that my colleagues areimmoral.”

She also commented on thecontroversial lease contract forgovernment tax offices inKošice, which was signed witha company owned by a regionalofficial of the SDKÚ, and statedthat she did not get supportfrom the SDKÚ presidium forher stance against the contract.

Radičová also partially con-firmed what many political ob-servers have said about herstyle within the Slovak politic-al scene – it was different andperhaps not compatible withthe usual ways of Slovak polit-ics. Radičová said on TVMarkíza that she had attemp-ted “a different style ofpolitics”, but added that it wasnot easy to keep one’s own val-ues in politics.

Several of Radičová’sformer colleagues from theruling coalition as well aspolitical observers have sug-gested that by leaving theparty she might be preparingto run in the presidential elec-tion scheduled for 2014 andRadičová did not explicitlyrule out this possibility duringthe television programme.

Some observers have notedthat the SDKÚ might lose somelevel of support because ofRadičová’s departure from theparty but its chairman,

Mikuláš Dzurinda, said that itwould not be a huge loss be-cause Radičová will remain asprime minister, as nominatedby the SDKÚ, until the Marchelections and her good resultsuntil then will earn points forthe party as well, the TASRnewswire wrote.

Dzurinda not challenged

Meanwhile, Dzurinda star-ted positioning himself as theparty’s election leader and tookpart in a round of media discus-sions over the last weekend ofOctober, including one withRobert Fico, the chairman ofthe Smer opposition party.

Dzurinda’s position asparty election leader was con-firmed on November 2 after ap-plications to stand for that postin the party’s primary electionsclosed. The two other strongestpotential candidates, FinanceMinister Ivan Mikloš andJustice Minister LuciaŽitňanská, had both made itclear in advance they wouldnot challenge Dzurinda. No-one else applied and soDzurinda, as party chairman,will automatically take thenumber-one slot on the party’selection list.

Slovakia does not have atradition of primary electionswithin political parties and be-fore the June 2010 elections theSDKÚ was the only party tohold a primary. That was howRadičová became the party’selection leader: she defeated

her only challenger, Mikloš, ina brief battle for the position.The contest was civil, withboth candidates declaring theiramity and willingness to worktogether towards the party’scommon goals. Radičová wonwith an unexpectedly large ma-jority even though Mikloš hadsaid before the vote that he ex-pected a close contest.Radičová captured 2,669 votesagainst 1,666 for Mikloš.

The SDKÚ primary elec-tions in 2010 followedDzurinda's resignation as theparty’s election leader in thewake of money-laundering ac-cusations against the partymade by Fico, then prime min-ister, in January 2010, only sixmonths before the elections.Fico claimed that SDKÚ wascontrolled by shell companiesthat operated in tax havens andheld accounts in Swiss banks,calling the financial operationsof these shell companies“money laundering”.

Dzurinda stated at thattime that his withdrawal as theelection leader should not beinterpreted as an admission ofany mistakes or an acceptanceof political responsibility. Hemaintained that he was with-drawing so that Fico could notuse questions about SDKÚ’spast financing during the par-liamentary election campaign.

In a recent interview withthe Sme daily Dzurinda said is-sues surrounding the party’spast financing are no longer aproblem that hinders him from

running as the party’s leader inthe elections next March.

“I have paid significantly interms of politics,” Dzurindastated. “It is a long time since Ihave felt such moral power as Ido now.”

Right vs. left?

Three centre-right parties,the SDKÚ, KDH and Most-Híd,have all stated that they areopen to some kind of closer co-operation leading up to theelections so that they will beable to achieve more seats inparliament than the Smerparty, just as they were able todo, together with Freedom andSolidarity (SaS), in 2010.

“The anti-pole to govern-ment by one party [Smer] is co-operation by SDKÚ with theKDH and Most-Híd,” Dzurindasaid in his speech to party lead-ers in Zvolen on October 29, asquoted by the Sme daily.

Dzurinda noted that he ap-preciated the initiative of Most-Híd leader Béla Bugár, who hadsaid in a previous interviewwith Sme that the three partiesshould unite to provide voterswith an alternative to Smer.Some individuals from bothMost-Híd and SDKÚ have sug-gested that their parties couldsign a treaty about post-elec-tion cooperation before theelections are held.

However, recent opinionpolls do not suggest that thesethree parties would be able toform a government on theirafter the March election. A pollconducted shortly after theOctober 11 fall of the Radičovágovernment by the MVKpolling agency, published onNovember 2, gave Smer 37.5percent of the vote, earning 72seats in Slovakia’s 150-memberparliament. The three centre-right parties would be able tooutnumber Smer only with thehelp of MPs from SaS, whichpolled 10.9 percent. SDKÚ re-ceived 11.6 percent support inthe poll, KDH got 9.5 percentand Most-Híd garnered 8.2percent.

No other parties wouldreach parliament, according tothe poll.

Radičová is leaving Dzurinda's party after five years. Photo: SITA

FTT: Globaladoption soughtContinued from pg 6

The Slovak Banking As-sociation (SBA) sees the taxas being motivated by theEuropean Union’s desire toraise revenue.

“Based on its preliminaryassessment, the FinanceMinistry is leaning towards anegative stance on the intro-duction of a financial trans-action tax,” PatríciaMalecová Šepitková, fromthe press department of theministry, told The SlovakSpectator. “We believe thatin the discussion about anFTT the need to achieve aglobal agreement on the in-troduction of the tax is espe-cially important, but we seethat as improbable.”

The Finance Ministry ad-ded that it would be neces-sary for any discussion aboutan FTT at the European levelto deal with negative impactsfrom the tax on the Europeanas well as national financialsystems, and for questionsabout the cumulative effectsof an FTT and other plannedregulatory measures apply-ing to the European financialand banking sector to be con-sidered.

The SBA perceives the taxas merely a source of addi-tional finances for EU insti-tutions.

“The main motive for theintroduction of this tax is toprovide income for the EUbudget,” SBA analyst MarcelLaznia told The Slovak Spec-tator. “Claims that the moneywould be returned to taxpay-ers or used to support the sta-bility of the sector are false.”

Laznia stated that bankshave already paid back over€27 billion from funds whichgovernments provided tothem in 2008 and 2009, andsaid that the actual amountof aid drawn was about €580billion.

Laznia pointed to the ex-perience of Sweden in intro-ducing a similar tax, whichwas later abandoned, andsaid he expected somethingsimilar to happen if aEurope-wide FTT was intro-duced.

“Sweden introduced asimilar tax during the1980s,” said Laznia. “The res-ult was the movement ofcapital and deals abroad anda significant decline in theliquidity of the market. Afterseveral years the tax wasgradually decreased and latercancelled completely. Weexpect a similar scenario tounfold in the case of the EUtax.”

On the other hand, theSlovak Finance Ministryagrees that the financial sec-tor should participate fairlyin the costs of the recent fin-ancial crisis, as it also helpedto cause it, according toMalecová Šepitková. Simul-taneously, the ministry be-lieves that when adoptingregulatory measures at the

European level related to thefinancial or banking sector itis necessary to assess theircumulative effects alongwith their individual im-pacts.

With regards to the po-tential introduction of thetax, Laznia said he believesthat if the tax is not intro-duced on a global level,which he regards as improb-able, the whole EU will cometo grief as all transactionscarried out by financial insti-tutions would be taxed.

The Finance Ministry be-lieves that if a global agree-ment about the introductionof the tax is not achieved,this may decrease the com-petitiveness of the financialand the tax environment inthe EU and afterwards lead toa possible relocation of fin-ancial institutions or theirtransactions subject to taxa-tion into countries withmore advantageous tax en-vironments. This might alsoincrease the regulatory bur-den on the EU’s financial sec-tor with regards to the cumu-lative effects of several regu-latory measures planned atthe European level related tobanks and financial institu-tions.

With regards to the Slov-ak financial sector, MalecováŠepitková said that it alreadyhas to pay, in addition to‘normal taxes’, contributionsto the Deposit ProtectionFund, the Guarantee Fund ofInvestments, and the Na-tional Bank of Slovakia, tocover supervision costs, andthat an additional specialbank levy is due to be intro-duced as of January 1, 2012.

“There is a risk that thecosts of the tax would betransferred to the end-client,which in Slovakia’s casemight result in negative im-pacts on the yields of mutualand pension funds and im-pacts may be expected alsoon transactions with statebonds on the secondarymarket,” said MalecováŠepitková. She further poin-ted out that an FTT mighthave a negative impact onthe GDP of member states,which the EC has calculatedat 0.5 percent.

The Finance Ministryalso believes that each regu-latory intervention reducesthe effectiveness of the mar-ket, especially in terms of itsrole in allocating capital,which reduces the relevancyof introducing an FTT as atool to secure the stability ofthe financial market.

“The weight and scope ofthe capital market in Slov-akia is significantly lowerthan in other, more de-veloped countries and thus itmay be estimated that theimpact on the Slovak capitalmarket would be, comparedwith the effect on markets inother countries, signific-antly lower,” said MalecováŠepitková.

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9NEWS / FOCUS November 7 – 13, 2011

Roman historyacross the border

ONLY until November 15 willvisitors have a chance to seethe Exhibition of Lower Aus-tria 2011 that cost €42 millionto assemble and is a culturalhighlight of the region ofeastern Austria. Since itsopening in mid April, morethan 450,000 people have vis-ited one of the three sitesmaking up the exhibition: theopen-air museum at Petron-ell, the archaeological Mu-seum Carnuntinum in BadDeutsch-Altenburg and theHainburg Culture Factory.

While the open-air mu-seum offers a fascinatingstroll through an authentic,reconstructed Roman resid-ential quarter that includesVilla Urbana and 4th centuryRoman baths, the MuseumCarnuntinum is rightly calledthe treasure house of theCarnuntum ArchaeologicalPark. The third site, HainburgCulture Factory, invites visit-ors to embark on a journey ofconquest and explorationthrough time and space as itspresentation illuminates thehistory of civilisation frompre-Roman times to the 21stcentury.

“The exhibition in theMuseum Carnuntinum is theresult of five years of scientif-

ic work and contains over1,100 exhibits,” said GabrielleKremer, curator of the exhibi-tion, adding that it providesan important insight into thereligious practices of resid-ents of ancient Carnuntum.

She noted that Romanhistory in this region isclosely linked with parts ofSlovakia as significant Romanruins have been unearthed inDevín as well as in Rusovce,where the Roman militarycamp named Gerulata waslocated.

The Images of God – Im-ages of Humanity show,which was developed just forthe Exhibition of Lower Aus-tria 2011, showcases valuableartefacts such as statues, re-liefs, altars, stelai on grave-stones and works of architec-ture that predominantlycame from this region and of-fer a better understanding ofreligious and social life in theRoman Empire.

The organisers of the Ex-hibition of Lower Austria2011, with written informa-tion in German, English andSlovak, estimate that about 10percents of its visitors havecome from Slovakia.

By Jana Liptáková

10 CULTURENovember 7 – 13, 2011

A big touch of jazz

VIVID and full of energy on onehand, calm and mysterious onthe other: jazz can be as differ-ent as the people who havededicated their lives to playingit. The fact that this older mu-sical style can combine veryeasily with rock as well asLatino rhythms could be at-tested to by anyone who was atthe Incheba Expo Centre inPetržalka, the venue for Bratis-lava Jazz Days, during the Oc-tober 21-23 weekend.

The first edition of Bratis-lava Jazz Days (BJD) wasbrought together in 1975 byamateur jazz musicians andduring its first years it in-volved mostly musiciansfrom Czechoslovakia or partsof the former USSR. But ineach year since it has becomemore international and hasgradually changed its look.This year’s festival looked likea reunion of US-based jazzperformers seeking to per-manently entrench this kindof music in Slovakia, in theheart of Europe.

“Jazz is specific becauseevery author, every soloist is arepresentative of a certainview,” Peter Lipa, a leadingSlovak musician and long-time organiser of BJD, told apress conference on October 3.

And he was right. Theevenings were as unique asthe people performing themusic. The audience couldlisten to jazz coloured withvarious musical styles, in-cluding rock, folk, pop andLatino as well as jazz in itspurer forms.

“It [the programme] is afolder that is created everyyear,” Lipa stated, adding thatthe festival has never had anyparticular leitmotif and thatexperience from previousyears has proven again andagain that composing the pro-gramme in this way is right:the audience is willing tocome and listen to well-known as well as lesser-known musicians.

Full of colours

From its very beginning onFriday evening the perform-ances and performers cap-tured the attention of theaudiences and did not releaseit until the last gig – one thatcombined a funky version ofAfrican, Latin and other mu-sical genres offered by theEarth, Wind & Fire Experi-ment featuring Al MacKay.

People did have a chance tocalm down during the per-formance by Polish singerGrażyna Auguścik, whosevoice seemed to melt into thesounds of the musical instru-ments, and to put on theirdancing shoes during the per-formance by Cuban pianoplayers Chucho Valdés andHarold Lopez-Nussa. They alsoenjoyed the beautiful voice ofRaúl Midón, a blind Americansinger, and the New Orleansmelodies of the trumpetplayed by Nicholas Payton.

Younger people particu-larly enjoyed the music ofRobert Glasper, whose per-formance with the electric andhip-hop band R.G. Experimentbrought stormy applause fromthe audience.

Glasper, who came to Slov-akia four months ago, told TheSlovak Spectator that he ap-preciated the attentive audi-ence who really enjoyed themusic despite the huge num-ber of people who had jammedthe hall during his concert.

Another extraordinarypart of the festival was the per-formance of American trum-peter Randy Brecker joined bythe AMC Trio from Prešov,represented by PeterAdamkovič on piano, MartinMarinkovič on double bass andStano Cvanciger on drums.Brecker, a renowned jazzman,decided to learn the repertoireof his Slovak musical soul-mates, much of which theycompose themselves.

The musicians gave theirbest to the audience and it wasreturned back to them in thesame way as pure energy.

“The audience was justgreat, it felt like we had knowneach other for years,” US singerand saxophone player CurtisStigers told The Slovak Spec-tator. He added that he made aconnection with the peoplefrom the get-go and welcomedthe way they laughed at hisjokes between songs.

Stigers, whose Saturdayperformance brought him a

long, standing ovation, saidthat he tries to make a jazzversion of even popular songsand that it is very importantfor him to put real emotioninto his music.

“I try to take the story thatsomeone else has told and tellit in a different way, from mypoint of view,” he told TheSlovak Spectator, adding thatall people have similar thingsgoing on in their lives – heart-breaks as well as love.

Though a majority of theperformers came from theAmericas and the Caribbean,Slovakia had a number ofartists appearing among theheadliners. The Friday con-certs were opened by a younggroup from eastern Slovakiacalled The Illusions Trio.

“It is an amazing feelingbut it is also a big responsibil-ity for us to be one of theSlovak bands playing inBJD”, Andrej Karlik, theband’s guitar player, told TheSlovak Spectator.

Slovakia was also repres-ented by the Matúš JakabčicCZ-SK Big Band performingwith Austrian saxophoneplayer Harry Sokal and musi-cians playing on the secondstage.

New blood

In addition to the head-liners, BJD gives new jazzgroups a chance to show offtheir stuff and perform infront of packed audiences onthe second stage. Though itmight seem that most peoplewould be attracted more tothe A-stage performers whoare more famous than their B-stage colleagues, the reverseseemed to be true as even lessfamiliar performers were ableto flaunt their talents in ajam-packed room.

Appearing on Stage Boffered another importantopportunity for the groupsthat performed there – asthanks to the SPP Foundationthe organisers of the jazz fest-

ival started to vote on whichgroups will play at sub-sequent Bratislava Jazz Daysand have a chance to appearamong the stars on Stage A.

Karlik from The IllusionsTrio, the group which wonlast year’s voting, believes thefuture will show what lastyear’s victory meant for them,while adding that their suc-cess has been reflected in thetrio’s behaviour and they arenow more convinced of theimportance of their music.

“I feel it through the in-creased self-confidence of ourgroup,” Karlik told The SlovakSpectator, adding that thoughthe group is now more visiblethe Slovak jazz market is toosmall for them to become asuperstar among worldwidegroups performing jazz.

The FAT BreakFAST groupwon this year’s Stage B con-test and their jazz, like themusic of The Illusions Trio, istinged with rock melodies.

Jazz days – the place to meet

BJD has always been themeeting point for people withthe same interests – listeningto and enjoying jazz. For thefirst time in its long historythis year’s performanceswere not held in Bratislava’sPKO, which is now closed tothe public, but at the largerIncheba complex inPetržalka.

Though some peoplemight have complained alittle about the new venueand some overcrowded areas,especially between concertswhen people wanted tofreshen up, Karlik from TheIllusions Trio does not thinkit really matters where thejazz days are held.

“People, and also musi-cians, are coming because ofmusic not because of theplace,” he told The SlovakSpectator.

Zuzana Vilikovskácontributed to this report

BY RADKAMINARECHOVÁ

Spectator staff

US singer and saxophone player Curtis Stigers performing during Bratislava Jazz Days.Photo: Courtey of the Rock Pop Bratislava Agency

Museum Carnuntinum offers almost 1,200 precious artifacts.Photo: Jana Liptáková

Bratislavawelcomed bignames from

across the globeto once again

wow audiences

SP90654/2

11November 7 – 13, 2011CULTURE

School dates back to 1626

IN 1526 THE Ottoman armycrushed the military forces ofthe Kingdom of Hungary at theBattle of Mohács and soon af-terwards Buda, thenthe kingdom’s capital,fell. This is how theBratislava secondarygrammar school cur-rently known asGymnázium Grösslingovabegan.

When Buda was capturedby the Ottomans, many Hun-garian institutions were movedto Bratislava because it was freeof Ottoman rule and the city be-came the de facto capital of theKingdom of Hungary.

Perhaps this is why Car-dinal Peter Pázmány, theArchbishop of Esztergom, is-sued a foundation charter for a

Bratislava Jesuit secondaryschool called Collegium Po-soniense in 1626. Lessons atthe secondary school began onNovember 5 of that year anduntil 1714 the school resided inrented space on KapitulskáStreet. Later it moved into thebuilding of a Jesuit monastery.

That this secondaryschool changed its name 18times and its language of in-struction several times over

its history was arather typical phe-nomenon for thispart of Europe. It isalso interesting tonote that the first

young woman to pass examshere did so in 1874.

In 1898 the school movedinto its current building, seenin this postcard from the1920s. The school is amongthe oldest in all of Slovakia.

By Branislav Chovan

HISTORY TALKS

WesternSLOVAKIA

Bratislaval JAZZ: All That Jazz – World-famous musicians David San-born (alto saxophone) andJoey DeFrancesco (organ) willgive an intimate club per-formance in Bratislava, ac-companied by Byron Landhamon drums.

Starts: Nov 8, 21:00; NuSpirit Club, Šafárikovo Square7. Admission: €20-€25. Tel:0917/304-801; www.nuspirit.sk.

Bratislaval SPANISH MUSIC: ČarovnáZarzuela / Magic Zarzuela – Aperformance of Spanish Zar-zuela - traditional combina-tion of drama, dance and mu-sic - organised by the SlovakNational Theatre (SND), theSpanish Embassy in Slovakiaand the Fundación Guerrero.It will be performed by theSpanish artists Sagrario Sala-manca, Alejandro González delCerro and Pilar Gallo.

Starts: Nov 12, 19:00; SNDhistorical building, Hviez-doslavovo Square 4. Admis-sion: €4-€10. Tel: 02/2049-4290; www.snd.sk.

Bratislaval BLUES FESTIVAL: Folk BluesSession – The 11th year of thisfestival of blues and folk-bluesmusic brings artists likeBluesraiders, Boky Citom, EricWood (US) and Veteráni zoSalón Doré.

Starts: Nov 12, 18:00; Houseof Culture (DK) Lúky,Vígľašská 1. Admission: €4.50(in advance) or €7 (on thedoor). Tel: 02/6382-3930; www.ticketportal.sk, www.kzp.sk.

Bratislaval LIVE MUSIC: Sade – ThisBritish soul singer with Ni-gerian roots needs no intro-duction. After a long break, shehas embarked on a tour thatincludes Slovakia.

Starts: Nov 13, 20:00; On-drej Nepela ice-hockey stadi-um. Admission: €69-€119. Tel:02/5293-3321; www.ticketportal.sk.

Bratislaval EXHIBITION: Neznámyautor známych prác / The Un-known Author of KnownWorks - Jozef Vlček – An artistof Czech origin who worked inSlovakia during the wartimeSlovak State, designed severalstamps and was once a prom-

inent graphic artist. He laterslipped into obscurity, butĽubomír Longauer is nowseeking to rehabilitate hisreputation.

Open: Tue-Sat 13:00-18:00until Nov 20; Slovak Centre forDesign Satelit, Dobrovičova 3.Admission: free. Tel: 02/2047-7311; www.sdc.sk.

Trenčínl LIVE MUSIC: Olympic – Thislegendary Czech rock band hasbeen playing together sincethe 1960s and has lost none ofits power and attraction – asyou can find out for yourself.

Starts: Nov 11, 20:00; PianoClub Trenčín, Pod sokolice12-16. Admission: €16. Tel: 02/5293-3321; www.ticketportal.sk.

CentralSLOVAKIA

Sliačl CLASSICAL MUSIC: A con-cert to mark the 100th an-niversary of the death of Slov-ak composer Ján Cikker offersA. Čajová-Vizvári (soprano), V.Bartošová (piano), and P.Michalica (piano) playing theworks of Cikker, Dvořák, IljaZeljenka and Mozart.

Starts: Nov 9, 19:00; TownCulture Centre (MKS), Kúpeľ-ná 11, Sliač. Admission: €5.Tel: 045/5442-202; www.sliac.sk.

Žilinal LIVE MUSIC: Christian Fre-derickson – A solo concert by amusician who boldly com-bines classical music with in-die-pop, electronic and exper-imental sounds. In this con-cert, he will mainly play hisworks for viola with the use ofloops and various effects.

Starts: Nov 8, 19:00; Stan-ica Záriečie, Závodská cesta 3.Admission: €2-€3. Tel: 041/5005-064; www.stanica.sk.

EasternSLOVAKIA

Košicel JAZZ MUSIC: jazz FOR sale –The 2nd edition of this jazzseries brings bands and solomusicians: Los Quemados(Czech Republic), Band ofGypsys Reincarnation (Hun-gary), Dynamic Fusion (Slov-akia), Pawel Kaczmarczyk (Po-land) and Audio felling band(Poland).

Starts: Nov 12, 19:00; His-torical Town Hall, Hlavná 59.Admission: €10. Tel: 02/5293-3321; www.ticketportal.sk.

Košicel CLASSICAL MUSIC: ARSNOVA Cassoviae - The SlovakState Philharmonic and theInternational Society for Con-temporary Music (ISCM) haveprepared this festival, whichbrings a wide range of concertsand accompanying events fo-cused on classical contempor-ary music. In 2013, The ISCMWorld New Music Days willtake place simultaneously inKošice, Bratislava and Vienna.

Starts: Nov 7-14; Domumenia / House of Art, Moyze-sova 66. Admission: various.More info: www.iscm-slovakia.org.

By Zuzana Vilikovská

EVENTS COUNTRYWIDE

Czech singer Iva Bittová comes to the Dom umenia Fatra / FatraHouse of Art in Žilina (Dolný val 47) on November 13 with theband Čikori to give a concert of her distinctive music, whichmerges world music, jazz, rock, classical and pop music. Her per-formances and recordings with Čikori are among the most poet-ic in her repertoire. Tickets (€13) can be bought throughwww.ticketportal.sk. Photo: TASR

November belongs to photosTHE 21ST EDITION ofBratislava’s Month of Photo-graphy brings together dif-ferent genres, photographersand countries in a total of 26exhibitions. The exhibitionsopened at the beginning ofNovember and are spreadthroughout the city at big gal-leries like the Slovak NationalGallery (SNG), the BratislavaCity Gallery (GMB), the Cent-ral European House of Photo-graphy (SEDF) – the organiserof this month’s events – andthe House of Art (Domumenia) on SNP Square, aswell as at several smallervenues.

Visitors can choose toview the winners of WorldPress Photo 2011 – a competi-tion that has been held since1955 and sets the standard forjournalistic photography – atthe House of Art. Aimed atpromoting the work of profes-sional photo-journalistsworldwide, the competition’s19-member international jurychose the works of 54 photo-graphers from 23 countriesfrom among the 108,059 pic-tures submitted by 5,691 pho-tographers from 125 coun-tries. Four other photo exhibi-tions opened as well at theHouse of Art on November 1.

One of this year’s mainthemes involves exchangesbetween photography stu-

dents from five countries. Inaddition to the BratislavaAcademy of Fine Arts, whichis celebrating its 20th an-niversary this year, photo-graphy academies fromPrague, Budapest, Lodz andHelsinki have sent some oftheir students for mutual ex-change of experience and ajoint international confer-ence. The Medium Gallery isalso offering works from 15other photographic schoolsin Europe.

Galéria Zoya offers worksby Portuguese photographersuntil November 23, while theDavid LaChapelle exhibitionat the GMB has been extendeduntil November 15. Works bydistinctive Czech photo-

artist Jan Saudek are on showin the Michalský dvor galleryuntil December 2, while pic-tures by Czech documentaryphotographer Viktor Kolářare available at the GMB untilJanuary 15 and renownedSlovak photographer KarolKállay offers his ‘Bratislava ofMine’ collection at the Houseof Art until November 30.

In addition to these gal-leries, the Austrian, Polish,Hungarian and Bulgarian cul-tural centres are hostingphoto exhibitions as well.

The full programme forthe Month of Photography isavailable at http://sedf.sk/sk/mesiac-fotografie-2011.html.


Weather updates and forecasts from across Slovakiacan be found at www.spectator.sk/weather.

A Slovak’s name day (meniny) is as important as his or her birthday. It is traditional to present friends or co-workers with a small gift, such as chocolates or flowers, and to wish them Všetko najlepšie k meninám (Happy name day)

N A M E D A Y N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 1

Monday

René

November 7

Tuesday

Bohumír

November 8

Wednesday

Teodor

November 9

Thursday

TiborTobias

November 10

Friday

MartinMaro‰

November 11

Saturday

Svätopluk

November 12

Sunday

Stanislav

November 13

BALET Bratislava, a new ballet ensemble founded by choreo-grapher Mário Radačovský, will start its artistic performanceswith the famous love story of Romeo and Juliet, put to music bySergei Prokofiev and choreographed by Radačovský. The open-ing nights of Rómeo a Júlia in Bratislava will be on November 11and 12, 2011; its home stage will be the Nová Scéna Theatre,Živnostenská 1. The cast includes Katarína Košíková (pictured),Natália Némethová and Veronika Hollá – all performing as Juliet– and Peter Dedinský (also pictured) and Canadian dancer Ar-thur Abram, appearing as Romeo. Tickets (€19-€24) can bebought through www.nova-scena.sk or www.ticketportal.sk.

Photo: Ctibor Bachratý

Jan Saudek is part of the Month of Photography. Photo: TASR

Day of Plumshonours slivovica

SEVERAL dis-tinctive tra-ditionalSlovakproductswere hon-

oured as well as joyouslysampled in mid-Septemberat Gazdovský dvor, a farm-yard in Turá Lúka that is partof the town of Myjava inwestern Slovakia near theCzech border. The Day ofPlums included a conferencefor experts, theatre perform-ances and much sampling ofslivovica, Slovakia’s tradi-tional plum brandy, as wellas plum marmalade. Thefestival was even opened bythe screening of a film madeby student Šimon Horncalled Slivovica – sila tradície(the power of tradition).

The day-long event onSeptember 17 at the Tradi-tional Culture Centre in My-java featured an expert dis-cussion in the morning inwhich participants ex-changed information aboutmethods of growing original

species as well as newervarieties of plums, learnedabout diseases and pests andheard an expert assessmentof the outlook for growingthis traditional fruit in theregion’s hilly hamlets calledkopanice.

Throughout the day theserious business was re-lieved by light-heartedtheatre performed by theTheatre Ensemble of J.M.Hurban from Brezová podBradlom with the theme ofslivovica, Viera Feriancováof the cultural centre toldthe TASR newswire.

“An accompanying af-ternoon event to the Day ofPlums was tasting of brandyin the barn of Gazdovskýdvor that was prepared bythe Association of HobbyGardeners from Turá Lúka aswell as the traditional cook-ing of marmalade by theKýčer folk ensemble, alsofrom Turá Lúka,” Feriancovásaid, adding that the pre-pared plum delicacies werealso sold during the event.

Fun with plums in Turá Lúka. Photo: TASR

Athletes and local people pose next to buildings bearing typical Čičmany decorations. Photo: TASR

Slovak athletes to sportČičmany motif at Olympics

SLOVAKIA hasformallyagreed to parti-cipate in the30th SummerOlympic

Games in London next sum-mer and also decided on a folk-pattern design for the athletes’attire, according to FrantišekChmelár, the head of the Slov-ak Olympic Committee, whosigned the Olympic applica-tion on October 24.

“We pledged to take partin the summer games and Ifirmly believe nothing willstop us from competing inLondon. And while we arethere we also want to be suc-cessful. We want to repres-ent Slovakia not just in theathletic competitions but

through all our activities andpresence there,” Chmelártold the SITA newswire.

The design that will beused for the apparel for all theathletes is based on a tradi-tional folk pattern originatingfrom the village of Čičmany innorthern Slovakia.

“In the past there was nounifying element in the Slov-ak Olympic [clothing] collec-tions – something that couldmake our country clearly dis-cernible among all the othercountries and what we as anation could identifyourselves with,” said MiroslavJankovič of the Alpine Procompany, which will supplythe team’s apparel.

So far 55 athletes havequalified for the 2012 Olympic

Games but if national sportsteams also qualify that num-ber will increase, Chmelársaid, adding that the qualifica-tion process will continue un-til early July next year andthat this will be Slovakia’s10th participation in eithersummer or winter OlympicGames since it became an in-dependent country.

Slovakia was most suc-cessful in the summer gamesin Beijing in 2008 with theSlovak athletes bringing homethree gold medals, two silver,and one bronze.

“We have never been asmall team but rather average-sized. And the design of ourteam T-shirts can help us togain success and recognitionin London,” Chmelár opined.

Breeding creepy-crawlies in KošiceMOST people cannot ima-gine breeding amphibi-ans, insects and bigspiders in a city-centreflat but doing so is a long-term passion for 25-year-

old Marcel Bodnár, a cook from Košice.Bodnár told the TASR newswire that

he started as a young boy with aquariumfish but gradually expanded his mena-gerie to include reptiles, various kinds ofspiders and insects and several otherexotic species. In his small room with abalcony in a Košice apartment building,his collection includes a tortoise, beetles,walking-leaves (tropical insects withflattened leaf-like bodies), newts, apiranha and axolotls, an aquatic sala-mander native to the western UnitedStates and Mexico.

When asked whether such an ex-traordinary “farm” can be managed in amodest city accommodation, Bodnárgave a clear yes “if one’s parents are okaywith it – and mine take it as normalalready”. Bodnár was 10 years old whenhe became fascinated with exotic anim-

als. The hobbyist buys new species oradds to his existing collection throughexchanges, saying a large exotic spidercould cost between €3 and €100. “Theprice depends on the size and species,”Bodnár commented, adding that he likesthe extraordinary character of his hobbyand that “not everyone does this”.

He told TASR that breeding andmaintaining exotic animals and insectsis not necessarily expensive because heraises some insects as food for his otherpets. “It costs me a maximum of €15 amonth,” he said. He buys frozen itemsfrom pet-shops for some of his creaturesand he feeds his cockroaches, used assnacks for larger animals, dried rolls andkitchen leftovers. Although Bodnár is anexperienced breeder he confessed thatparts of his menagerie have escaped sev-eral times. “Almost all species have runaway; usually when I clean their vivari-ums and I am not careful or when I forgetto close the door,” he admitted. Bodnárnoted that his exotic pets are eye-catch-ing but when he wants to enjoy gamesand petting he reaches for his trusty dog.

Empresswins votes

A PETITIONamong Brat-islavans andvisitors toindicate ifthey want a

statue of Ľudovít Śtúr thatnow stands in the squarethat bears his name replacedby a full-sized statue ofEmpress Maria Theresamounted on a horse, as ori-ginally stood there at thebeginning of the 20th cen-tury, ended in mid-Octoberwith the empress attractingseveral thousand votes.

About 5,000 people tookpart in the poll organised bythe Bratislava Beautifica-tion Association (BOS). 3,540people signed their namesto agree to installation of theMaria Theresa statue, 189were against doing so underany circumstances, and 516stated they wanted MariaTheresa placed in a differentlocation with Štúr kept inhis square.

The poll was conductedin the square itself, next tothe Štúr statue on the north-ern embankment of theDanube River, MarošMačuha of BOS told the SITAnewswire. People were alsoable to view a smaller, two-thirds-sized, statue of amounted Maria Theresa thatBOS wants to see erected inthe square in its originalsize. The miniature of MariaTheresa is a facsimile of theoriginal, sculpted by JánFadrusz and installed therein 1897. It was destroyed in1921 by Czechoslovak le-gionnaires who regarded itas a symbol of the Hungari-an monarchy.

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AROUND SLOVAKIAcompiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports

12 FEATURENovember 7 – 13, 2011

Marcel Bodnár, with friend. Photo: TASR

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