NEWS
1 | 2011
THERE IS POTENTIAL
IN KOŠICE
Peter Malík
CEO of the Erste Group
Immorent
This locality currently offers minimal industrial or storage. Up until the present, 90
percent of the million-plus square metres
of industrial property in Slovakia, 90 percent
are located in the Western region of the country. The remaining 10 percent, i.e. a mere
100,000 square metres, lie in Central or
Eastern Slovakia.
Erste Group Immorent Slovensko is currently
finalizing the first phase of the infrastructure
networks for the IMMOPARK project in Košice.
Investors can additionally benefit in Košice
from available and qualified labour, which
is somewhat limited in Western Slovakia.
The company is fully-owned subsidiary
of Austrian Erste Bank Group, and
is specializes in the financing and development of real estate projects. Peter Malik,
managing director of the Erste Group
Immorent Slovensko, tells us more about the
situation on the market as well as the project
itself.
Moreover, in the last two years, not a single
speculative project has been launched, and
Why did you opt for Košice? Weren’t investors
more interested in western Slovakia, instead?
We have always believed in the potential that
the Eastern-Slovak region can offer.
Title page
There is potential in Košice
2nd page
Immopark has an excellent
location
3rd page
Hockey Republic
4th page
3 reasons to invest in East
Slovakia
IMMOPARK has the potential to become
a vital force in the economic development
of the entire Eastern metropolis region
of Slovakia. What is the history behind it?
About five years ago our strategy has shifted
from financing to own project development in
Slovakia. We have therefore invested in land in
Košice that is being developed for industrial
and logistic park.
Content
due to unutilized capacities in the construction sector, construction costs have been
noticeably reduced. This creates an additional
precondition to offer our clients attractive
rental rates.
Peter Malík
CEO of the Erste Group Immorent
IMMOPARK NEWS
Dr.h.c. prof. Ing.
Dušan Malindžák, CSc
Director of Institute
of Logistics and Transport
Industry,
IMMOPARK HAS AN
EXCELLENT LOCATION
Is Košice region suitable for new businesses in term
of its location?
Košice has an excellent strategic location.
It is situated in proximity to the highway connecting
Žilina, Prešov, and Košice on route to Čierna nad
Tisou. Moreover, Košice is located on highway
section R4 that will lead from Lithuania, Turkey, or
Greece, respectively. Košice is a crossroad of these
strategic routes, which is very appealing for companies in terms of transport and costs.
Let us not forget that there is also an airport with a
renovated runway accustomed to accept all types of
goods.
IMMOPARK Košice has an excellent location at the
north-west-east-south crossroads; it is located near
strategic roads and only one kilometre from the
Košice airport. Kechnec village is also nearby and
here we find the headquarters of many foreign
companies.
What else might be appealing to foreign investors?
Košice is the second largest city in the Slovak Republic and is a proud home to three universities:
the Technical University, the University of Pavol
Jozef Safarik, and the University of Veterinary
Medicine and Agriculture. Investors certainly
wouldn’t have any problem finding qualified professionals and providing high quality employees
for their businesses.
Tell us about the logistics department at your
university?
There is enormous interest in the logistics department and we actively promote the subject at the
high-school level as well. We are the first university
in Slovakia to have logistics as a scientific discipline,
where all three types of study are accredited. We
also hope to be awarded the right to conduct habilitation and inauguration procedures. In Europe we
will be the leader in this field. This subject is clearly
appealing, and we have registered high interest in it
from foreign students. We recently had graduates
from Finland, Germany, Japan, and many other
countries.
We had the first graduates of logistics in 1996 and
ever since, we are constantly expanding this department. We also cultivate an active relationship and
communication with locally residing companies,
who provide us with information about what experts
are looking for. We are subsequently able to customize our study plan, in part, based on their demands.
Our university is among the oldest universities in
Slovakia; it was founded in 1952. First, there was the
Faculty of Mining and Metallurgy, next the Faculty
of Mechanical Engineering, followed by the Faculty
of Electronic Engineering and Informatics. The
Faculty of Manufacturing Technologies with
headquarters
Contentin Presov (processing of
textiles, leather, and rubber) was a subsequent addition. We later opened the Faculty
of Economics and the Faculty of Fine Arts
(sculpture, painting, architecture, design)
and the most recently opened faculty is the
Faculty of Aviation. The university currently
has about 17 000 students and 2 000
employees.
What do you believe motivates students
to study logistics?
After informatics and economics, logistics
is one of the most demanding specializations.
Information
technology
has
dominated the globe for the past 20 years.
Prior to that, it was the age of automation,
and before that even, it was mechanisation.
Information technology has been establishing trends for the past two decades, but
times are changing. Today, nearly everybody
has a computer, a mobile phone, and a GPS,
so the field itself is more or less just being
renovated. If you need a mobile phone, you
buy a new one.
Here, the informatics era subsides and the
era of logistics begins. It is because logistics
is another factor, which companies are keen
to explore in terms of cost-cutting and
keeping their prices market- competitive.
You predicted the era of logistics already 20
years ago. Could you predict the result of
the oncoming World Cup in hockey?
I think, the Russians will win the World Cup
and we will come in second.
IMMOPARK KOŠICE
largest "built to suit" project in Eastern Slovakia with a 9-month term of delivery.
Holds valid permits for light industry and
logistics, with ready infrastructure in place.
located on a 60 ha plot between the international airport and the highway to Košice and
Bratislava and offers more than 250,000 sqm
of logistical, industrial, and office space – the
PL
CZ
Žilina
Košice
Slovak Republic
U
Bratislava
A
HOCKEY REPUBLIC
Slovakia's Bratislava and Kosice to host 2011 Ice
Hockey Championship
Slovakia will to host the 75th Ice Hockey World
Championship. The national teams of the world’s 16
best ice hockey nations will play 56 games in Bratislava and Košice, Slovakia – from April 29 to May 15,
2011. However, this will be the third time that
Bratislava has co-hosted the World Championships.
The first two occasions were in 1959 and 1992, each
time with Prague and while part of Czechoslovakia.
Group A and Group D will play in Bratislava (Ondrej
Nepela Arena), while Group B and Group C will play
their preliminary group games in Košice (Steel
Arena).
The Slovak candidacy received 70 votes, while the
Swedish only 20 and the Hungarian one 14 votes.
The last time our country received such an honour
was sixteen years ago, but at that time it was a lower
category, namely the Group B World Cup. Since then,
much has happened in the hockey world and even
Slovaks contributed significantly to the history
H
of the fastest collective game. In 2000, they became
the global front runners and won silver medals. Ice
hockey is an issue of great interest in Slovakia. The
celebrations after the Slovak football team's
unexpected but thoroughly deserved win over Italy
in last year's football World Cup were as nothing
compared to the ecstatic reaction that greeted the
Slovak ice hockey team's victory in the 2002 World
Championship.
During the championship, some 350,000 spectators
are expected to visit Bratislava and Košice matches,
1,000 accredited journalists from over 30 countries,
around 190 engaged TV stations, some 800 million
TV viewers and about 3,000 hours of TV transmissions world-wide.
The International Ice Hockey Federation
(IIHF) determined that one of the main
conditions for hosting the WM in Slovakia is
a new hockey stadium. In Bratislava, after
long disputes over the location of a new
hockey arena, the authorities decided to
upgrade the existing Ondrej Nepela Ice
Rink. Its capacity will expand to hold over
10,000 seats. The Ondrej Nepela Arena is
the oldest ice hockey arena in Slovakia.
During the 75th IIHF Ice Hockey World Cup
2011, it will host the games of preliminary
groups A and D, as well as the Quarterfinals,
Semi-Finals, Bronze Medal-Game, the Final
and the Relegation match. Reconstruction
of the arena started two years ago and cost
nearly 96 million EUR. It was financed by
the state and the town of Bratislava. The
Steel Arena in Košice will host the top world
hockey teams of Canada and USA, as well as
2010 bronze medallists from Sweden.
Bratislava and Košice officials expect that
costs of the championship will be replaced
in their budgets with new investments in
the region. Košice, specifically tried to
attract new potential investors. Local
infrastructure is being improved, many
sports facilities were built there, and local
university guarantees highly educated
workers. The construction of the industrial
park also began near the local international
airport. The first logistic buildings shall be
completed before the end of 2011. This
project represents a modern distribution
centre offering premises suitable for
logistics, distribution, warehousing, and
light production with office spaces. Ice
hockey WM is a significant opportunity to
present Slovakia to the world and to potentially attract foreign investors.
3 REASONS TO INVEST
IN EAST SLOVAKIA
Hein van der Ploeg
Partner - CEERM
and for 2012 4,5%*. The Eastern Slovakia region is
in focus by the government and they are supporting
the economical growth by providing investor
incentives. This region is expected to attract a large
influx of foreign investments from companies active
in the manufacturing, automotive, and IT sectors.
2) Qualified labour force for a competitive price
1) Attractive Investment Climate
Slovakia has been transformed from a centrally
planned to a market economy. This allowed Slovakia
to join the EU in 2004 and exchange the Slovak
koruna for the EURO in 2009. The Slovak economy
has been considered a tiger economy, also known as
the “Tatra Tiger”. The GDP Growth in Slovakia was
4% in 2010 and for 2011 is expected to be 3,4%
Arising from an engineering and mechanical production tradition, East Slovakia has a skilled and
qualified labour force available. With an average
salary in the Kosice region of 10-15% lower than
the average monthly salary of 758EUR in Slovakia,
the Kosice region will certainly attract an influx of
foreign investment. Average unemployment in
Slovakia is at 12,2% and in 17.7% in the Kosice area
with an increasing proportion of unemployed
university graduates.
3) Infrastructure Improvements
Kosice is strategically positioned and,
during the coming years, important
transport infrastructure improvements will
be completed between West and East
Slovakia. This will have a multiplier effect
and this will attract even more investors,
and those who are present now will have a
competitive advantage on the labour
market and establishment costs. A comparison can be made with the Ostrava region in
the Czech Republic were the new highway
and the rail road improvements provided an
economical boost with increased foreign
investments in the industrial and logistic
market within a short period of time.
Contact
Erste Group Immorent Slovensko s. r. o.
Tomášikova 48, 832 52 Bratislava
+421 2 486 299 11
immorent@immorent.com
Project info
+421 918 183 000
www.immopark.sk