Maracek: EC Praises Slovakia's Investment Plans in Science and Innovation

Brussels, 20 November (TASR-correspondent) - Investment, Regional Development and Informatisation Ministry State Secretary Richard Maracek met with the directors-general of the European Commission (EC) departments responsible for health and for science, development and innovation in Brussels on Thursday, confirming for TASR that the European Commission praised Slovakia's investment efforts in the field of innovation. Maracek pointed out that he discussed a revision of the Slovakia Programme with representatives of the Directorate-General for Health. He presented a project to build a military hospital in Presov, which as of 2029 should serve people in eastern Slovakia as a top-quality hospital and also as a military hospital in one of the countries on NATO's eastern flank. The second part of his talks was with representatives of the Directorate-General for Science, Research, and Innovation. He also spoke about a revision of the Slovakia Programme under which the ministry has reallocated more than €300 million to activities related to development, research and innovation. "We're well aware that Slovakia isn't among the best countries in terms of innovation. On the contrary, we're near the bottom of the 27 EU countries, in 24th place, and we have to do something about that," he said, emphasising that Slovakia's disadvantage is that it's only an "assembly plant" and that there is a huge risk involved in having industry focused heavily on automotive production, which is mainly about assembly work and not about development, research and innovation. Maracek stressed that Slovakia needs to intensify investment in these areas. am/df