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Bratislava region: The Slovak cradle of prosperity

Tom Nicholson and Beata Balogoá

	Slovakia’s port on the Danube river.
	Sme - Pavol Funtál

All industrial sectors are well represented in the Bratislava region, and are highly centralised in the capital. However, Bratislava is also the administrative and financial hub of the country.

All major banks except for Dexia Banka (Žilina) and all major insurance houses have their headquarters in the Slovak capital, and the finance and insurance sector accounts for about a quarter of the region's GDP, well above the Slovak average.

Main production branches of the region are the chemical, automotive, engineering, electro-tech and food industry. Still, the Bratislava region is the first region of Slovakia where trade and services are gaining dominance over industrial production.

Bratislava is Slovakia's technological and scientific-educational centre. It has the highest percentage of university-educated citizens in the country, and over 40 percent of Slovak university students study in Bratislava at one of three universities: Comenius University, the country's oldest and largest; the University of Economics; and the Slovak University of Technology.

Several international IT firms, including Dell, IBM, Lenovo, AT&T, Accenture and SAP have set up outsourcing centres in the capital.

While the engineering sector in Slovakia took a nasty knock in the early 1990s as armaments production was shut down or turned to civilian uses, the Bratislava region picked up some of the slack with the Volkswagen plant, founded in 1991. In June 2007, Volkswagen Slovakia produced its 2,000,000th car while its fourth-millionth gearbox was produced at the end of March 2007. The milestone car is VW Touareg. VW Slovakia is producing around 1,200 cars daily. When the carmaker started production, only six cars were made per day.

VW in particular has attracted a flock of suppliers and sub-suppliers to Slovakia in recent years, including Dura in Stupava, Brose in Lozorno, Kuster in Devínska Nová Ves, and the US firm Tower Automotive, which bought an engineering plant in Malacky to supply undercarriages for VW's Touareg model.

In 1902 the company Siemens-Schuckert Werke founded a factory in Bratislava to make electrical engineering products, such as welding equipment and generators. The Gumon factory, which can still be seen at the foot of the new Apollo Bridge, was erected in 1911 to produce insulating materials.

Following the completion of the Družba crude oil pipeline from the USSR across Slovakia in 1962, the Slovnaft refinery was set up in Bratislava - unfortunately right on top of Žitný ostrov, the largest reservoir of fresh water in Central Europe. In 2002, Slovnaft was acquired by the Hungarian MOL energy concern.

Besides Slovnaft, one of the largest chemicals firms in Bratislava is Istrochem, owned by Czech investor Agrofert, which also bought the fertilizers and rubber chemicals maker Duslo Šala for Sk2 billion, and now controls one third of Slovakia's chemical production.

The construction sector in Slovakia was hit badly after the 1989 revolution, shedding 100,000 employees between 1992 and 1994, and falling from a 9-percent share of GDP production in 1989 to 3.7 percent in 2004. However, the strength of Bratislava's economy and the currently booming real estate market in the capital has led to a local revival in the construction sector, and four of the top 10 Slovak construction firms are now Bratislava-based: the massive Slovak-owned Doprastav, which bought the Czech No 2, Metrostav, and is now one of the most respected construction firms in Europe; Zipp, an important supplier of concrete halls to green-field investors; the Austrian Strabag, which since 2003 has been in a strategic partnership with Zipp; and Sibamac.

Bratislava has a strong glass industry firm in Medical Glass.

The Slovak timber and furniture-making industry numbers over 200 firms with more than 20 employees; the most important in the Bratislava region is Swedwood Slovakia (a member of the Ikea Group), which in 2001 built two new production halls in Malacky at a cost of Sk1.5 billion, one for making wood-fibre boards, and the other for making kitchens.

Printing in Slovakia dates from 1477, but it wasn't until the First Czechoslovak Republic from 1919 to 1938 that the sector really developed, counting 250 firms at its height, about the same number that now operate in Slovakia. Bratislava is a major printing centre, accounting for five of the country's top 10 printing firms. In particular, two firms owned by Bratislava entrepreneur Ivan Kmotrík - the Slovenská Grafia firm, which recently bought a 32-side rotary printer for Sk350 million to become the largest rotary printer in the Slovak and Czech republics, and Grafobal Skalica, which has been investing and exporting heavily - are worthy of note.

Bratislava is also a home of the headquarters of national telecommunications services providers such as the dominant fixed-line operator Slovak Telekom, mobile phone operators T-Mobile, Orange and Telefónica O2.

In the past Bratislava used to be a major producer of agricultural goods, but in the 20th century moved more towards industry and services, and recently tourism. Bratislava is now visited by one in four visitors to Slovakia, and has six of the top 10 grossing hotels in the country.

	The Malé Karpaty foothills are the most intensive wine-growing area in the country.
	Sme - Pavol Majer

In May 2007, the Bratislava City Council approved a new master plan for the city that proposes to move industrial enterprises from built-up urban areas to the outskirts, and to rezone former industrial land for residential and administrative uses.

The new master plan treats Bratislava as a metropolis of European importance and as the historical hub of European migration routes from North to South (the Amber Route) and from East to West (the Lower Danube Route). The city has also been defined as one of the centres of the Vienna-Bratislava-Györ triangle, which has gained regional and business importance as the 'gate' for the exchange of cultural and historical values of Eastern and Western Europe.

Other important investors are construction material producer Holcim and energy producer Západoslovenská energetika (Germany), retail chain TESCO Stores (UK), major energy utility Slovenské elektrárne (Enel), gas utility Slovenský plynárenský priemysel SPP and gas transition company Transpetrol (The Netherlands). Non-alcoholic beverages producers Coca-Cola Beverages (The Netherlands) and Pepsi-Cola (USA) along with Kraft Foods Slovakia and McDonald’s Slovakia (USA).

The region possesses the country's busiest airport, M.R. Štefánik, which by 2012, it hopes to boost its capacity to serve 5 million passengers per year. The airport plans to build its new terminal by 2010, which would boost passenger-andling capacity from the current 2.6 million per year to 3.5 million. The bill for the terminal is expected to be Sk1.6 billion (€50 million). Last year, 2 million passengers travelled through the airport, a 4-percent year-on-year increase, according to its spokeswoman.

The largest carriers currently using Bratislava airport are two low-cost airlines, SkyEurope Airlines and Ryanair. SkyEurope, however, has extended its cooperation with Vienna International Airport, which has been viewed as a serious competitor to Bratislava airport.

A freeway links to international road corridors, Bratislava also has a harbour on the Danube with freight and passenger river connections to Vienna and Budapest.

Source: Trend Top 2007, figures for 2006

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