.png){kind=small}
Why Slovakia
Slovakia has an ideal business environment within the Central and Eastern Europe because of its political and economic stability strengthened by the common European currency the Euro, competitive taxation system tax, and availability of highly skilled and educated workforce offering the highest labour productivity in the CEE region with favourable labour costs.
The attraction of Slovak business environment is proved by constantly raising number of foreign investors and volume of foreign direct investment in the country. Reasons why to carry on a business in Slovakia:
- member of the European Union.
- member of Eurozone as one of a two countries in CEE;
- member of Schengen area;
- member of NATO;
- member of OECD;
- member of WTO;
- safe investment environment: political and economic stability;
- geographic location with great export potential;
- fastest growing Eurozone member within the last 10 years;
- Slovakia 10 Year CEE Leadership in Doing Business 2004 – 2013 (World Bank);
- CEE leader in labour productivity and in TOP 10 hardworking countries (OECD);
- high adaptability of labour force to different culture management styles;
- number 9 worldwide in adapting to new technologies and high innovation potential;
- large selection of industrial lands and offices;
- steadily growing infrastructure network;
attractive investment incentives.
Moving Corporate HQ
Slovakia sits in the heart of Europe. Bordered by Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic, its developed infrastructure gives businesses quick access to other high-growth regions in Europe as well as developed nations to the West. Moreover, taking into account the radius of 1000 km from the capital of Slovakia – Bratislava, a consumer base covers a population of 300 mil. and radius of 2000 km a consumer base covers a population of 600 mil.
Slovakia offers many business advantages, such as relatively low wage costs for talented, adaptable and educated work force, foreign languages spoken at rather high level (English, German, French and Russian in particular), business friendly environment, rising labour productivity (96% of Slovak employees work more than 40 hours a week) and educational institutions of high quality. Moreover, excellent access to the European market, limitation of foreign exchange risk, lowering transaction costs, growth in foreign trade and increased financial stability during last decade, gave an intention for foreign investors to transfer their business in Slovakia.
For all these reasons, information and communication technology sector has a solid position in the Slovak economy that can be demonstrated not only by the presence of foreign companies (Dell, IBM, Lenovo, HP, AT&T and etc.) but also strong domestic IT companies (ESET, Sygic etc.). However, Slovakia´s industry is mostly represented by vehicle production industry, such as a Volkswagen (Bratislava), PSA Peugeot Citroën (Trnava), Kia Motors (Žilina), Jaguar Land Rover (Nitra). Among the important activities of modern automotive industry development can be listed not only the construction of the latest automotive plants with the latest technologies, but also the first initiatives in the development of e-Mobility in Slovakia.
Working & Living in Bratislava
Bratislava is geographically and culturally the heart of Europe: its favorable location makes it not only an encounter of cultures, but also a commercial and trade hub. Moreover, as a capital, it offers all the advantages of a cosmopolitan, but still liveable, city. Its population is approximately 450,000 and it is also the largest city in the country. Bordering Austria (Vienna 60 km apart) and Hungary (Budapest 250 km apart), it is the only EU member country capital that borders two sovereign states.
Slovakia’s labour market is relatively small and the unemployment rate belongs to the smallest ones in Visegrad Group. And still, Slovakia can offer a lot of interesting job opportunities for foreigners. The EU citizens are not required to have a work permit to be employed in Slovakia, however they are required to have a confirmation of permanent residency for tax purposes. Non-EU member country employee needs a work permit from Labour Office and residence permit from the Foreign Police Department.