Foreign investors upbeat about Slovak economy

The evaluation of foreign investors is the most optimistic it has been in eight years, TASR learnt from a European investors' survey. The results were presented by the Slovak-German Trade and Industry Chamber (SNOPK) presented on Thursday. On the other hand, the businesses were less upbeat about the workforce shortage. In addition, they thought the Government should step up its efforts in combating corruption and dishonest practices in procurements. A total of 176 businesses took the survey in February. Meanwhile, 44 percent of companies expect to increase their staff levels and 37 percent plan to increase their investments. Only 10 percent planned to downsize, which Commercial Counsellor of the Austrian Embassy to Slovakia Hans Christian Kügerl described as the best score in the survey since 2005. That said, the survey showed that reforms are needed in the education sector with the aim of improving the availability of the labour force. Slovakia should also do more in increasing the enforceability of law and transparency in public procurements and boosting the fight against corruption. The investors' assessments of corruption resulted in the worst mark ever awarded in this respect in the survey.