On September 21st, 2021, the SARIO agency, in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic, the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Kyiv, the Honorary Consulate of the Slovak Republic in Kharkiv, organized AVIAFORUM 2021 at the Congress Hall of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic. There were Slovak companies, business entities, and entrepreneurs, especially from the aviation and aerospace sector, engineering as well as the defense industry. The event was attended by the representatives of the academia from both sides, representatives of the local governments, and the state agencies and enterprises. The forum was officially opened by Ján Oravec, State Secretary of the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic, and Oleg Uruskyi, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Strategic Industries. The short opening was followed by the presentations delivered by the Honorary Consulate of the Slovak Republic in Kharkiv (Viktor Vasilievich Popov, Honorary Consul of the Slovak Republic) and by the SARIO agency. Miroslav Beseda, Deputy Director of the SARIO Investment Projects Department, introduced the aerospace and defense sector of Slovakia to the Ukrainian counterparts, and Michal Brichta, Head of the Industrial Unit of the Slovak Space Agency, presented the Slovak companies elaborating and developing broad-range products for the space sector. After the official part, a B2B forum was held, which was attended by as many as 71 participants (37 participants from the Slovak side, 34 representatives from the Ukrainian side, including the representatives of the major Ukrainian entities and enterprises such as Antonov, FED and the State Space Agency of Ukraine). A number of 40 companies were present at the event (19 from the Ukrainian and 21 from the Slovak side). As many as 93 B2B meetings between different entities took place during the forum. The following day, September 22, 2021, the Ukrainian delegation headed by the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Slovak Republic visited the innovative company VRM based in the Slovak town of Trenčín, which focuses on the development of simulators and training systems for the aviation industry. Later that day, the delegation visited Letecké opravovne Trenčín, a. s. (LOTN) company specializing in the repair, renovation, and modernization of aircraft parts, components, and units.
