Sektorale und regionale Aspekte der Industrietransformation in der Slowakei

Abstract

The process of transformation which has been proceeding since 1989 in the Slovakian industry has lead to a tripling of the numbers of industrial firms up until now. At the same time, the numbers of industrial jobs have dropped by roughly a third. Drops in production and cutbacks in jobs have taken place in all branches of the industry. However, the problems suffered up until now have been greatest in metallurgy, in metal processing, in machine engineering, in the electrical industry and in the energy and fuel sectors. The reasons for this are varied. The most important factors are the high investment costs for modern technologies, high requirements for energy and raw materials, ecological problems and the drop in sales' figures. Regional variations in the industrial process of transformation result from the local and regional location conditions of the respective economic area, as well as from the regional branch structure. The general loss of jobs in all industrial regions did however have different effects on their economic development. In the major cities of Bratislava and Kosice, they were considerably less severe as a result of the broad spectrum of non-industrial jobs as they were in the regions of the former weapons industry and in their supply firms or in monostructural regions. In these areas, des pite a greater than average cutback in jobs (up to 46%), almost one half of the workforce remains employed in the industry. In individual locations, where foreign capital has been invested, the industrial process of transformation has advanced to a greater extent.