Slovakia: The economy is boosting

Slovakia's economy seems to have finally regained consciousness after the crisis. This week was marked by some news from major manufacturers, who have intention to increase its production.

Among the leaders is the Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn, who bought from Sony a TV manufacturing plant located in Nitra. Foxconn announced about its intention to hire an additional 900 people and increase production from 3,000,000 to 4,500,000 units.

The largest private employer in Slovakia - the German Volkswagen - plans to increase production of its cars at a factory near Bratislava. The company plans to increase production to 400,000 cars by the summer 2011. In 2011 Volkswagen plans to launch a new model of family cars. For Slovakia this will mean an additional 1500 new jobs.

Another major carmaker – the Korean KIA - announced about its intention to hire an additional 250 employees, increasing the total number of people employed in production to 3000. KIA also plans to increase the number of produced cars from 300.000 to 450.000 units.

There is excitement also in the energy market in Slovakia. On January 10, 2011 German energy company E. ON has opened a new power plant for 430 megawatts. The new station will provide with energy 600.000-900.000 households in 5.5-million Slovakia. Investments in construction of the new station are amounted to 400 million euros.