Chapter 5: Slovakia
(continued)
Sources of information are referenced throughout the text wherever appropriate. The numbers in brackets refer to the publications listed in Section 5.9.
Four experts requested that their responses be considered as their personal views and not those of their organization or company.
Overall, some 70 percent of the respondents were from environmental businesses, 10 percent from State authorities, and 10 percent from R&D organizations. The remaining 10 percent of interviewees specified another type of organization, especially budget-funded professional organizations, universities, etc.
As regards business activity, 40 percent of respondents were producers of environmental technologies, 30 percent were dealers or distributors, 55 percent specified environmental consultancy, and up to 70 percent considered services as one of their main activities. The percentages do not add up to 100 percent because many organizations were classified in more than one category - on average, companies specified two fields of activity.
With respect to environmental expertise, the highest proportion of respondents specialized in water and wastewater (50 percent) and in waste management (50 percent), followed by air (40 percent), energy (20 percent), and noise, vibration and industrial health and safety (10 percent). Again, the total does not add up to 100 percent, as some companies worked in more than one area. The most frequent combinations included water and waste, and air and energy.
More than 60 percent of the interviewed organizations were set up between 1990 and 1993. Approximately 20 percent were established before 1990, and more than 10 percent were new organizations, established after 1994.
The majority of interviewed parties were small or medium in size - 55 percent of the companies had between 10 and 50 employees, and just under 30 percent had less then 10 employees. Organizations employing between 50 and 100 employees constituted 10 percent of respondents, while 5 percent were companies with more than 100 employees. These companies are considered large in the environmental market in Slovakia. The size distribution discussed above corresponds well with the respondents' own subjective assessment of size. Only one organization rated itself to be very large, while 10 percent considered themselves large, 50 percent medium-sized, and 25 percent small.
Only three out of five experts responded to the question on annual revenues from environmental activities. Among those who responded, 30 percent specified a sum above USD 1 million, 50 percent specified annual revenues between USD 100,000 and 1 million, and the remaining 20 percent indicated figures below USD 100,000.
As for geographic distribution, 45 percent of respondents were located in Bratislava, 45 percent in other major cities, and 10 percent in small towns. The scope of operations was mixed - 90 percent of organizations stated that they carry out business activities on the national level, 50 percent on the international level, and 40 percent work on the local level. Common combinations included local and national, and national and international.
