Sakova: Government to Offer Solutions to Automotive Industry, Expects Input

Bratislava, 4 July (TASR) - At Friday's meeting with representatives of the Slovak automotive industry, the government plans to assess what is bothering the sector the most and offer it a number of solutions, said Economy Minister Denisa Sakova (Voice-SD) before the special cabinet meeting on Friday, adding that the government expects the other side to offer its ideas as well. "We're going to offer a number of solutions which we've been discussing for a long time, and we're waiting for their input regarding how we can help them even more to maintain the competitiveness and production of our automotive industry here in Slovakia. There are many of these suggestions, and we're expecting opinions from the automotive industry [representatives] in order to decide which specific projects we should support," said the minister. According to Sakova, the competitiveness of Slovakia and the whole EU is threatened most by high energy prices at the moment. Therefore, Slovak representatives regularly discuss this issue with representatives of the European Commission (EC), she said. "We need the European Union to present us not only with medium- and long-term solutions, but also with short-term ones that we can implement immediately,“ the minister stressed, adding that her ministry is preparing targeted energy aid for next year, which must ultimately be decided by the government. Before the meeting, Slovak Automotive Industry Association (ZAP) president Alexander Matusek pointed to several problems that the Slovak Economy is currently facing. "We have to do something about our competitiveness and orientation. We've published data several times this year on where investments in Slovakia are coming from, and, unfortunately, it's not from the countries that our government, our prime minister [Robert Fico from Smer-SD party] visit. So we have to think about this somewhat," stated Matusek. In this context, Sakova stressed that the current government is aiming to pursue foreign policy oriented in all four cardinal directions. "We've identified markets that are growing rapidly, in which we want to be active, and this is also related to the issues that we'll be addressing today; that is, the Indo-Pacific area, as well as the countries of the Global South, where there's a huge amount of room for engagement. But, of course, we have to primarily focus on our relationship with the European Union, as 80 percent of our trade is conducted via EU countries, and our main tie is with the Federal Republic of Germany, where the level of trade is enormous and mainly linked to car production - the sector which is most threatened [in Slovakia]," stated Foreign and European Affairs Minister Juraj Blanar (Smer-SD). lin/df