Foreign Chambers of Commerce Call for Education, Health-care and Justice Reforms

Bratislava, December 6 (TASR) - Slovakia urgently needs to adopt effective reforms in the field of education, health care and justice, foreign chambers of commerce operating in Slovakia have stressed in a joint statement, urging the Government to adopt these reforms as soon as possible. "We're calling on top public officials to learn from the insufficient efforts of public institutions over the past two decades, and, in close cooperation with the European Commission (EC), to focus all their capacities on acting in line with the essence of reform efforts in order to modernise Slovakia and catch up again with the living standards of [other] EU countries in all social and economic indicators," stated the chambers. The chambers emphasised that Slovakia has huge experience in preparing and approving strategies, but subsequently has a problem with achieving social consensus on priorities and fulfilling goals. Therefore, the Government should do its utmost to obtain political and wider social support for the already-approved reform plans included in the Government Manifesto or in the recovery plan. "As creators of economic values, we emphasise that an economic model based on cheap labour and foreign investment is outdated in all Central European countries. "Dynamic technological and social changes bring challenges (not only for Slovakia) in the form of a high digitisation rate, new skills and the automation of processes with a broad social impact," stated the chambers. According to them, the persisting crisis along with the lack of political unity in reform efforts is jeopardising the future of Slovakia, which found itself at the tail of OECD and EU countries in terms of the quality of education, health care and justice even before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, the Government must listen to the opinions of the relevant professional and employers' organisations. ko/df