Slovak ambassador seeks to boost economic ties

The new Slovak Ambassador to Malta presented his credentials yesterday and pledged to try and inject new life into the almost dormant economic relationship between the two countries.

"I'm an ambitious ambassador," Stanislav Vallo told The Times.

Business and trade between Malta and Slovakia is poor. Just 0.01 per cent of Slovakia's trade volume is done with Malta. The island doesn't figure in the list of 53 countries which have invested more than €1 million each in Slovakia. Just 100 to 150 Maltese visit Slovakia every year, statistics the ambassador deems "alarming".

"We really need to boost economic and commercial exchange," says Mr Vallo, who is also ambassador to Rome and San Marino.

During his visit to Malta, Mr Vallo will be visiting the Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise, the Federation of Industry, Malta Enterprise and the Malta Financial Services Authority.

Slovakia prepared itself well for EU membership, the ambassador said. The figures prove him right as the central European country has been attracting a lot of investment since joining the EU in 2004.

According to the World Bank, Slovakia had the fastest transforming business environment in the world in 2004, and already comparisons are being drawn with Ireland's economic transformation in the 1990s. Its capital, Bratislava, is gleaming with foreign investment. It has become the eastern European darling of the multinationals and foreign investment totalled some €2.2 billion last year, twice the amount attracted in 2004.

Slovakia's car manufacturing industry is booming, said Mr Vallo, who also sees a lot of opportunities in small and medium enterprise.

Several tourist centres, especially in the country's rich mountainous regions, have been privatised and there is a lot of scope for joint ventures, including with Maltese entrepreneurs, the ambassador feels.

Still, he admitted that several Slovaks were still reluctant to change.

"You might be closed off by the sea. We have been closed off by ideologies and politics for several years," he said, referring to his country's pre-independence days.

"It wasn't easy to get out of Czechoslovakia. Can you imagine how difficult it was for cultured people who couldn't go see Carreras sing in neighbouring Vienna?"