SARIO and the inaugural meeting of SABIC - Slovak American Business and Innovation Council

The inaugural meeting of the Slovak American Business and Innovation Council (SABIC) took place in Washington DC on May 5, 2016 and the Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency (SARIO) was present while Robert Šimončič, SARIO CEO addressed the meeting via phone conference and expressed the support of the Ministry of Economy of the SR and SARIO to this initiative. According to his words “SABIC is a very action oriented project with a great potential to event better connect Slovakia and the U.S. in a business and investment areas.
 Its formation reflects the growing demand from US businesses active in Slovakia and Slovak businesses entering the US market for a permanent business and innovation focused platform based in the United States. SABIC is a joint initiative of the Slovak Embassy, the private sector and the nonprofit sector
Among the founding members are some of the most successful examples of Slovak – US business cooperation such as ATT, Honeywell, Virtual Reality Media and ESET. Amb. (Ret.) Tod Sedgwick, former US Ambassador to Slovakia, was elected the President of the organization and Amb. (Ret.) Rick Graber, former US Ambassador to the Czech Republic and Senior Vice President of Global Government Relations at Honeywell, was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors.
The main goals of SABIC are to promote the commercial activities and investments between the US and Slovakia, to support Slovakia’s startup ecosystem by fostering bilateral exchange and to engage the Slovak-American professionals in this process. Director of the Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency Robert Šimončič addressed the meeting via phone conference and expressed support on behalf of the Agency.  Executive Director of AmCham Slovakia Jake Slegers also participated in the meeting via phone conference. Board Chairman Amb. Rick Graber said: “I welcome this timely initiative aimed at boosting the trade and innovation potential between Slovakia and the US especially in light of the upcoming Slovak EU presidency and its priority of pushing forward digital agenda and innovation”