Korupcia oberá štát o pol miliardy eur ročne - EUROREPORT plus

Summaryto place five in Top Countries 2013 Chart,made up by Lonely Planet, the renownedguide-book publisher world-wide. Theplace seven was won by the Winter Resortin Jasná (the Tatras Mountain) in the topwinter European destination chart, rated bythe Lonely Planet guide-book publisher. Inthe US TV-cable news network CNN rating,the City of Košice (Eastern Slovakia) turnedto be the third best tourist destination in2013. Slovakia is comparable to touristpotential of other countries and more oftento better-known centres of tourism. Wemay say that the Capital Cities in the CzechRepublic and Hungary are of dominantposition in tourism trade. Statistical dataare saying that both Prague and Budapestare visited by about sixty to seventy percent out of total number of tourists. Inneighbouring Austria the Alps are widelyvisited apart from Vienna.Brand-new strategy designed fordevelopment in tourism by 2020 thatis to be adopted by the Governmentof the Slovak Republic, is subjected tointroducing Slovakia in a competitive way.Notwithstanding, some of the purposes arealready under the implementation stage:the national quality system to be launched,a brand-new marketing strategy designed;the amendment to the law on tourism.Destination management is one of thetargets we are focused on to make it betterand updated to current needs of businessrunningentities in tourism. Jointly withthe Ministry of Education we are workingon how to train specialists in tourism andhow to make training better in order tomake tourism trade more competitive.■■ The current trend prevailing is that touristscome and see Slovakia just for one-day stays.Why do we witness such a phenomenon?Foto: archívObviously, the trend is to go in forshortened duration of stays; manyEuropean countries are facing the saidphenomenon. It would be unrealistic tohope we are an exception. Geographicallyspeaking we have to take the country’sposition into account. The number oftourists is getting augmented who wishto visit all V4 Group countries over theirholiday. And the trend is to spend oneday or two maximum in each V4 country.Therefore, we are highlighting Slovakia’sstrengths to the extent of V4 Groupcountries accordingly. Being part of V4Group countries promoted, Slovakia mayattract the interested parties of furthermarkets or those of far-away countries.Primarily the matter is the countries ofBrazil, Russia, India and China; furtherto this Argentina and Chile which areconsidered to be the lucrative markets forEurope in its entirety.Excerpt from an Interview with the StateSecretary of the Finance Ministry of theSlovak Republic, Peter Pellegrini■■ It is obvious that many countries are notable to reduce deficits in public funds ontothe level requested by the European Commissionthis year. Therefore, the exceptions arespoken about. What are Slovakia’s prospectsin making deficit lowered?It has to be emphasized that in thepast year already Slovakia succeeded toreduce deficit onto 4.35 percent of GDP,thanks to the measures taken by theGovernment with respect to the costs andexpenses at one side and revenues at theother side within the budgetary design. Incomparison with 2011 deficit was reducedby 0.7 per cent, and it can be classified asquite a unique phenomenon once it wasthe year when the Parliamentary electionstook place. The basic target of ours fromČasopis na prezentáciu Slovenska v Európskej úniiFoto: archívthe viewpoint of prospects is to reachlong-term sustainability of the publicfunds. Therefore, it is of utmost priorityto reduce deficit in public funds underthe three per cent of GDP, and we areplanning to do so this year. Both rules ofthe European Commission and Slovakia’sapplicable legislation are requesting those,in particular the constitutional law onbudgetary answerability. In compliancewith it the lowering of budgetary deficitsfor the next years was set up accordingly.Assumptions made for the next yearforesee to reduce the deficit onto 2.6 percent; in 2015 there is a presupposition toreduce the deficit onto two per cent, andin 2016 onto 1.3 per cent. It could / mightlead to subsequent discontinuation of debtincrease; and the assumptions are sayingthat from 2016 the public debt in Slovakiashould get lowered.■■ Are you comfortable with the opinions expressedby both foreign and Slovak expertssaying that fast pace in the public funds revitalizationis counter-heading the economicgrowth?Any consolidation of public funds is ofan impact on the economic growth fromthe short-term point of view. The key taskof utmost importance for Slovakia is to getout of the procedure of exceeded deficit atthe present, and we may reach the favourablestate by reducing the budgetary deficit underthe three per cent; currently we are obliged toset up a credible budget for the next year. TheFinance Ministry is responsible for solvingthe issue of the said consolidation; however,we have to search for optimal solutions of theleast impact on the economic growth, andconcurrently, we must not ignore the progrowthpolicies either.Research implemented by theInternational Monetary Fund last autumnis saying that under the current commonfiscal policy and in the time when manycountries are under the consolidationstage, the consolidation may have a moresignificant influence on the growth.Therefore, the countries, which arereaching the economic growth and theSlovak Republic is the case, should stickwith the consolidation at one side, butto take too radical steps in a year is notthe best solution in my opinion how torevitalize the public finance. It is better tohave a reliable mid-term plan designed tolower budgetary deficits and concurrentlyto take the development Europe-wide intoaccount respectively. English-written by © Mária Vrabcová73