Slovak Republic

Survey Results

1. When was your company founded?
   

2. Share structure
   

   Private	71%
   State-owned	13%
   Mixed	14%
   Other	2%

3. Do you operate as a joint venture?
   

   No	86%
   Yes	14%

4. Nationality of foreign shareholders in joint ventures (% of responses)
   

   Czech Republic	5.5
   France	2.7
   Germany	2.7
   Austria	1.4
   United States	0.7
   Great Britain	0.7

5. Full-time employees: % surveyed companies
   

   # full-time employees	%
   1-5	24
   6-10	21
   11-25	22
   26-50	5
   51-100	8
   101-200	8
   200+	12

6. Part-time employees: % surveyed companies
   

   # part-time employees	%
   0	34
   1-5	30
   6-10	14
   11-25	16
   26-50	4
   51-100	1
   101-200	1
   200+	0

7. Office equipment
   (percentage of companies possessing the following types of equipment)
   

8. Foreign language proficiency
   (i.e. what percentage of companies have at least one employee who speaks the following languages)
   

9. Annual turnover (in percentage)
   Income in million Slk
   

10. Income from foreign sources
    

    % foreign income	% companies
    0%	52
    <10%	22
    10-25%	9
    26-50%	4
    >50%	9

11. Top 8 environmental associations (%)
    

    none	55
    Slovenská obchodná a priemyselná komora Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry	18
    ASPEK Association of Industrial Ecology in SLovakia	14
    Sväz stavebnych podnikatelov Slovenska Union of Engineering Enterpreneurs of Slovakia	3
    Slovenská asociácia hydrogeológov Slovak Association of Hydro Geologists	2.7
    Zdruzenie pre hospodárenie s druhotnymi surivinami SR Association of Secondary Raw Material Economics in the Slovak Republic	2.1
    Zdruzenie organizácií verejnoprospesnych záujmov Association of Organizations of Public Benefit	2.1
    Zväz priemyslu SR Union of Industry of the Slovak Republic	2.1

12. Top 8 environmental publications (%)
    

    Opady	14
    Zivotné prostredie	9
    Planeta	5.5
    Vestník MZP SR	5.5
    Ekológia	3.4
    Vodní hosp. a ochrana ovzdusí	2.7
    Ekológia a zivot	2.7
    Ekozumál	2.1

13. Top 8 business publications (%)
    

    Hospodárské noviny	50
    Trend	38
    Ekonomicky a prány poradca	36
    Profit	19
    Obchodny vestník	9
    Ekonóm	6.8
    Zbierka zákonov	5.5
    Spravodaj SOPJ	3.4

14. Conference participation (in percent)
    

    How many scientific conferences did you participate in last year?
    

    	%
    1-2	30
    3-5	25
    5+	15
    none	30

15. How do you find out about new environmental business opportunities?
    

    personal contacts	94
    referrals from associates	88
    daily press	76
    trade shows and fairs	73
    regular post	70
    business publications	69
    conference attendance	69
    fax	53
    local government offices	53
    environmental publications	51
    Environmental ministry	51
    professional associations	49
    other national level ministries	47
    Industry and Trade ministry	37
    Chamber of Commerce	34
    universities or academy of science	31
    other	17
    e-mail	10

16. Preference for environmental information (in percentage)
    

    	not at all important	rather not important	rather important	very important
    conference or trade fair announcements	6	25	41	28
    environmental problems in the region	6	15	33	46
    how to control costs	4	23	37	31
    how to find foreign partners	9	27	34	29
    how to manage projects better	8	16	43	33
    information about environmental regulation	1	6	15	78
    information about investors	6	10	24	61
    information about sources of project financing	4	6	32	58
    new environmental technologies	1	4	32	62
    tenders for new projects	6	13	20	60
    upcoming project news	3	12	33	51
    where to find Slovak partners for large projects	7	14	26	52
    other	4	6	6	9

17. Preference for information delivery options (in percentage)
    

    	not at all important	rather not important	rather important	very important
    regular bulletin with new project opportunities	3	21	30	41
    a telephone dial-up information service	17	33	25	16
    a regional directory of environmental services and products in print	6	32	32	26
    a computer database of information resources accessible by modem	9	18	22	35
    broadcast fax service to inform you about project opportunities in your field of expertise	10	21	30	35
    conferences designed to introduce you to potential Western partners and investors	5	21	38	31
    workshops where you could meet other companies from your field to share and solve problems	4	19	30	44
    other	0	1	3	10

18. How interested are you in professional training courses in the following topics?
    

    	not at all interested	rather not interested	interested	rather interested	very interested
    environmental economic analysis	13	8	26	24	29
    environmental auditing	14	13	31	21	22
    environmental impact assessment	7	10	25	29	30
    environmental management	6	10	25	32	27
    environmental regulation	3	3	6	25	64
    environmental risk assessment	6	5	19	34	38
    environmental systems and sustainability	7	10	31	28	25
    financing environmental investment	6	6	15	25	49
    other	12	0	3	2	6

19. Evaluation of experience with Western companies
    

    	strongly agree	agree	disagree	strongly disagree	no idea
    Western firm understood local business practices	8	23	18	10	41
    Western firm understood our capabilities	11	32	12	3	41
    Western firm had good management skills	25	22	10	1	42
    language differences made working together difficult	2	11	17	29	41

20. What can be done so that cooperation with foreign firms will turn out better?
    

    	# of responses
    communication, mutual distribution of information among the partners	12
    equal partnership of Western and Slovak companies	11
    increase of foreign investments in Slovakia	10
    simplification of export/import of goods and services	9
    political and economic stability	9
    improve legislation concerning the field of private business	8
    breaking language barriers	5
    adjusting of foreign companies to the local situation in Slovakia	5
    support from the environmental fund	4
    It is impossible to work with Western companies	1
    other	3
    Do not know	43