SLOVAKIA – THE INVESTMENT

BRIDGE BETWEEN EAST AND

WEST

Gerta Sámelová Flassiková

alianciaadvokátov

Slovakia – Slovenská republika

Slovakia

• State formation date : 1 january 1993

• Capital : Bratislava

• EU member since : 1 May 2004

• NATO member since : 2004

• Schengen member : 27 Dec. 2007

• Euro (€) : 1 January 2009

• Population : 5.5 million

• Political system : Parliamentary democracy

• Government : Left wing from March 2012

Slovakia centre of Europe

• Slovakia has very good geographical position sometimes

it is called the heart of Europe

• Also location of our capitaI city Bratislava is very

favourable - only 60kms to Vienna, 320kms to Prague,

200kms to Budapest.

• Large EU companies often use Slovakia as a starting

point for their further steps eastward

• The same applies for the Russian and Asian companies

on their way to the EU

Economy

• Economy – an open economy

• Real GDP reached 3.5% in 2012 and it was one of the

fastest rates among all EU countries

• Russia is Slovakia´s 3rd largest business partner

• Export to Russia - mainly cars

• Strong in – world´s largest car producer per inhabitant

(Volkswagen, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Kia Motors)

• Further export –machinery, medical equipment,

pharmaceutical products, paper products

• Imports from Russia – mainly raw materials

Economy

• Russia is considered as very important market for the

Slovak exporters

• Eximbanka – official bank institution which supports the

export of the Slovak companies supported Slovak

exporters to Russia within last 2 years with almost I billion

Euro.

• Due to Russia ´s membership in the WTO since 2012

further development of the mutual business relations is

expected

Labour market

• The labour productivity in Slovakia is the highest in the

CEE region

• Highly qualified employees. This is also the reason why

many foreign investors are coming to Slovakia

• Average wage lower than in the neighbouring countries

• Unemployment rate 13.5, but varies widely from region to

region

Links

• Slovakia and Russia are traditionally connected in several ways

• Slovak territory is crossed by several transport corridors

• Traditionally there are the pipelines such as oil and gas pipelines Družba and Bratstvo built in the 1962 and 1968.

• Transeuropean water corridor of the Danube river crosses 10 countries before it flows into the Black Sea

Russian companies in Slovakia

• Sberbank – 3rd largest European bank began its activity in Slovakia on 15 February 2013 after having purchased the Volksbank

• Sberbank has concluded with the Slovak government an Agreement on Support of Investments and further 5 agreements on collaboration is expected to be signed shortly with the Slovak institutions

• The bank focuses on the small and medium companies and retail

• The bank provides the loans under better conditions than in Russia

Russian companies in Slovakia

• Lukoil – 14 gas stations and further under construction

• Gasprom daughter company Vemex Energo – provides

gas for households

• further around 200 small and medium companies

Potential Projects

• Russian railroads – the construction of the wide railroads across the territory is Slovakia is strongly considered. The president of the Russian railroads Vladimir Jakunin stated during his visit in Slovakia in April that the most practical route would be through the Slovak territory

• 450kms on the Slovak territory, 60 kms in Austria

• 11 thousand working places

• Investment of 6,5 billion €

• It shall reduce the transportation time of goods from Asia to Europe from 30 to 14 days

Potential Projects

Production and reparation of the boats

Lodenice Komárno (shipyards Komarno) has built over

60 per cent of the boats which are still sailing on the

Russian rivers

Renewable sources of energy- urgent need for

diversification Slovakia´s energy sources. Opportunities

for thermo, solar, biomass, biogas,geothermal, hydro

biofuel and alternative fuel technologies.

Potential Projects

• Nuclear energy

• 50% of the energy in Slovakia is produced in two nuclear power

plants. All the blocks were built after the Russian design.

• discussions with Rosatom which considers purchase of 49% of the

shares of the company JESS which shall build the new nuclear

reactor.

• Conditions of Rosatom is the long term fixation of the the electricity

price

Tourism

On a relatively small territory Slovakia can offer a great variety of

both active or passive holidays.

Slovak Spa

Slovakia is one of the richiest countries of the world regarding the

number and quality of mineral water resources. There is a great

number of healing spas, as well as large family aquaparks.

All the spas can be visited all year round

The spa heal mainly

Dermatological problems

Arthritis

Cardiac problems

Tourism

• High Tatra mountains gives the good combination of winter sports and

summer activities.

• skiing,snowboarding or sledging in the winter

• tracking, climbing, hunting or fishing in the summer

Doing business in Slovakia

• Why to do the business in Slovakia

• Country with a stable economic and political situation

• Very good telecommunication coverage

• Good standard of living and relatively low costs of living

• Slovakia – member of the Schengen Area, which

guarantees the free movement of persons once you are

there

• Traditional culture of the country is a combination of the

European and Slavic culture

Legal aspects of the business

• The most usual way to set up a business is to establish or purchase a

company – limited liability company

• Established within a short visit to Slovakia

• Registered capital - Euro 5000, only formally, from October to be

deposited in the bank

• Registration of the company within 5 working days from filing to the

court

• The director (konatel) of the company who acts on behalf of the

company can be either a local person or a Russian citizen with the

residential permit – max 3 years.

• Recently a business plan has been required from the businessmen at

the foreigner´s s police

Real estate

In principle there is no legal limitation for the foreigners

to acquire the real estate in Slovakia.

Certain limitations apply to the foreign individuals who

would like to purchase agricultural land.

Purchase of real estate is still considered as a relatively

safe form of investment

Use the lawyer for drafting the contract

Attention to be paid to –

Property title and owner

Non existence of the burdens

Form and time of payment

Real estate

• Once the contract is signed before the notary it should be

filed to the Cadastre office which shall within 30 days pass

a decision on the registration of the property title (15 days

for extra payment)

• The purchaser shall become the owner of the real estate

only when this decision is passed, not by signing the

purchase contract.

• There is an internet portal where you can check most of

the existing real estates in Slovakia (in Slovak only)

Taxation

• From the 1 January the Income tax for the companies has

increased from 19% to 23%.

• Highly critisized step

• VAT tax is 20%

Schengen Visa

Should you like to visit EU for the purpose of

Tourism

Business

Conference

Sport

You should apply for Schengen visa which entitles you enter the

whole Schengen territory 22 countries (from Slovakia in the east to

Portugal in the west, from Finland in the north to Italy in the south)

Sometimes required an invitation

- If from individual, proof of coverage the costs related to the stay

- If from company, similar subject of business, coverage of the

costs

- 30 days for issuance of the visa

Schengen Visa

• From december 2012 - joint decision of the Slovak Foreign Ministry

and Ministry of Economy on the special regime for the citizens of

Russia and Ucraine

• If the purpose of the visit is tourism, visit of the relatives or business

the applicants shall receive multiple entry 2 years Schengen visa

• If the applicant has used legally this 2 year Schengen visa he/she

may acquire multiple entry 5 year Schengen visa

• The Foreign Minister stated that there will also be effort from the side

of the consulates to shorten the period from 10 days to 48 hours.

• It is also planned that the application for the visa could be arranged

through the postal service from certain appointed places.

Thank you for your attention

• Speaker : Gerta Sámelová Flassiková, managing partner

• Firm: alianciaadvokatov ak s.r.o.

• Website: www.aliancia.sk

• Tel.: +421 2 57101313

• Fax: +421 252453071

• Email: flassikova@aliancia.sk

The content of the presentation

cannot be applied as legal

counselling as this will always

be subject to actual and

specific knowledge of the

client’s situation.