Business Environment
Comprehensive and deep structural reforms of the Slovak Government in recent years have focused on creating a business friendly environment for investors. The following is an overview of the main reforms, directly or indirectly, influencing economic stability.
New system of taxation - Simple, Fair, Neutral and Effective – is probably the best known from all the reforms. All the types and amounts of income are taxed at a flat rate of 19%; there is no double taxation and no dividend tax. A reduced 10% VAT was introduced for medicaments in autumn 2006 and for books in December 2007.
Banking & Finance – The banking sector was privatised with 97% foreign ownership. This sector underwent a dramatic recovery.
New pension reform – Individual pension saving accounts in the pension administration companies were introduced.
New Labour Code – This was recognised by the World Bank as one of the most flexible in the EU.
Health care system reform – Market principles into the health care system were introduced.
Social system reform – Among other things, new measures to avoid the abuse of the social system and better aimed targeting of social allowances were introduced. The introduction of employers’ obligation to pay sickness insurance benefits for the first 10 days of an employee’s illness leave resulted in a decrease of sickness rate from 9% to 3%, the lowest in all EU countries.
Act on Commercial Registry – The amount of the time required to register a new company has been cut to a maximum of 5 days; the same applies to the issue of a trade licence with a maximum allotted time of 7 days. As of 1 October 2007, one-stop shop centres were introduced at the Trade Licensing Offices. The one application form contains an application for trade licences, tax registration and registration with the health insurance company.
New investment incentives programme – On 1 January 2008, a new Act on Investment Aid entered into force. It enables a faster, and more transparent, negotiation and describes the requirements that should be met in a more detailed way.
10 Reasons for Doing R&D in Slovakia1. Fast and sustainable growth of productivity and innovation capacities
2. Highly accessible R&D workforce
3. European Union intellectual property protection framework
4. Low-cost research and opportunities to stop brain drain and bring talent back from abroad
5. Competitive universities clustered in three Central European university rings
6. Long-term political and economic stability - the highest in the region
7. Ease of starting a business
8. State-of-the-art optical and wireless data infrastructure
9. One of the highest levels of researchers’ international exposure in the EU
10. Industrial clusters to provide a foundation for product development.
