AmCham Slovakia

Business Service Center Forum

AmCham BSCF member companies were electing one vacant BSCF vice-chair position for the current 2-years tenure that started on 1 January 2023. The voting is taking place electronically on 23-26 May 2023. Lucia Gröneová (Swiss Re) was elected a BSCF vice-chair and will serve in this capacity for the rest of the 2 years tenure of the current BSCF leadership board (1/1/2023 – 31/12/2024). We congratulate Lucia and sincerely thank all BSCF member companies for taking part in 2022 BSCF vacant vice-chair elections. Your continuous support is highly appreciated.

Committee on Business-Academic Cooperation

AmCham Slovakia was invited to the Euroguidance Network Cross Border Seminar 2023 in Dresden, to present one of AmCham's flagship education initiatives - the Train the Trainer program, where business professionals support high school and university teachers in developing their soft skills. On 23 May, Peter Rusinak's interactive workshop guided the participating career counselors through the dynamic transformations of the labor market, jointly identifying the critical skills needed to thrive and succeed.

Digital Committee

On 7 June, AmCham Slovakia is organizing another Policy Talk - Unleashing Slovakia's Potential through Digital Skills and Digital Transformation. During this event we will focus on two key areas, which urgently need to be prioritized by the future policy and lawmakers in order for Slovakia to stay competitive and for our economy to grow. The first topic is digital skills, changing labor market and skills for the future, as Slovakia is one of the countries most threatened by automatization and ageing population. The other focus area is digital transformation, where political representatives will discuss their priorities and plans for improving Slovakia’s ability to absorb EU funding, raising the levels of SMEs digital readiness, and making sure that reforms and public policies are targeted and effectively implemented. See the detailed agenda on AmCham webpage and join us for this policy event full of interesting presentations and discussions.  

Regional Development

AmCham Slovakia is celebrating its 20^th anniversary in Eastern Slovakia this year, marking two decades since the opening of our Košice office. As we commemorate this milestone, it is essential to reflect on our journey and look towards the future. This is crucial not only to honor our jubilee and shape future AmCham activities in Eastern Slovakia, but also in anticipation of significant changes ahead. Therefore, we have already taken a deeper look into the above-mentioned by organizing two unique events in late May: On 24 May, a social event Sip&Chat&Innovate for the entire business community, as well as members of the innovation community in Eastern Slovakia, partners from the academic sphere, public administration, and the non-governmental sector. The aim was to present the new National Strategy for Research, Development, and Innovation (VAIA), introduce the project Eastern Slovakia In Figures, launched together with the Economic Faculty of TUKE to gather "hard data" in a comprehensive format for key sectors in Eastern Slovakia. The event served as a networking and warm-up event before the strategic discussions on May 25: Mapping The Current State of Eastern Slovakia's Potential mentioned above in the news session.

Health Care Commitee

On May 18, the representatives of the Health Care Committee who support the works on the Healthy Future II stream met with health and finance experts from the political parties HLAS as well as SAS. Together with the assistance of INESS and INEKO, the progress and development made in the areas of the 10 recommendations for Healthy Future 2030 (as presented in February 2020) have been presented, followed by closer look on the need to achieve sustainable financing of the health system in Slovakia, importance of the innovative treatment and procedures, availability of health data as well as Health System Performance Assessment concept. Further meetings with political representatives will be held in June, where the preparation of the “new” recommendations for the incoming Government in autumn 2023 will proceed to further phase. The aim is to raise awareness, provide expert insights and best market practices concerning provision of the healthcare in Slovakia and to keep open communication with relevant public sector actors.

On May 16 the members of the AmCham Health Care Committee had the opportunity to meet representative of the Ministry of Health of the SR, who is responsible for launching the so-called BIO HUB - Health Innovation Centre (formerly Health Innovation Hub - ZINC) within the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic. The concept of BIO-HUB, key driving ideas and mainly the opportunities for cooperation and participation for private sector partners in order to bring innovative solutions into Slovak environment have been presented during the meeting. The members that have not participated in the meeting may contact the respective AmCham policy manager in order to provide relevant information concerning the proposal made by the MoH of the SR.

Rule of Law Initiative

The Rule of Law Initiative turned to European Commissioners Šefčovič and Reynders - After our meeting with the European Commission's Representation in Slovakia on April 24, where we discussed the most pressing issues related to the rule of law in Slovakia, we followed up on our discussions by sending letters to the Vice-President of the European Commission, Maroš Šefčovič, and the Commissioner of Justice, Didier Reynders. In the letters, we communicated our request that key issues concerning topics related mostly to Act no. 350/1996 Coll. on the Rules of Procedure of the National Council of the Slovak Republic should be included in the upcoming Rule of Law Report, which the European Commission publishes every year. This report examines the justice system, the anti-corruption framework, media pluralism and other institutional issues related to checks and balances in all EU member states.

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Please get back to us with any suggestion for any possible improvement in our policy activities. We want to serve you even better.