Four towns ask to be declared “less developed”

The towns of Bardejov, Medzilaborce, Snina (all Prešov region), Gelnica (Košice region) and Košice's surrounding area might soon join the list of the twelve least developed regions of Slovakia, according to the Hospodárske Noviny daily. The reason for this is not the bad economic situation in these regions, but an attempt to obtain preferential conditions and money for projects. Regions marked as the least developed are, for example, favoured when it comes to drawing EU funds, attracting investors and they also receive special regional contributions from the state. "Various investors say that they didn't originally think of these regions, but they were eventually attracted by the vision of further developing the region," the Government Proxy for Support of the Least Developed Regions Anton Marcinčin told the daily. INEKO director Peter Goliaš argues that the Government measures taken in this regards so far haven't showed remarkable results. "Between March 2016 and March 2017 the lagging behind of the least developed regions actually deepened," he said.