“Our decision for Slovakia is based on the importance of the whole Eastern European market for the Mühlbauer Technology. That’s why we focus with our R&D site not only on the Slovakian market but especially on the whole Eastern European market that is extremely growing. Furthermore, Slovakia provides good preconditions for R&D. There are good universities and schools. The people are well trained and very open-minded.”Rosenberger-Suess Tilo, Corporate Communications, Mühlbauer AG, Roding “The main decision factors for R&D FDI in Slovakia were: good reference of a local firm, availability of sufficient human resources, good school infrastructure, collateral guaranty of long-term projects, and guaranty of investments.”Igor Stano, Head of Alcatel-Lucent's R&D Centre, Bratislava “Why we invest in Slovakia in R&D? Firstly we have known that there are available qualified people from the University of Žilina; there is a relatively strong IT market with a lot of small IT firms with reliable IT specialists; we also saw serious approaches from university side and the willingness for cooperation in the area of looking for new people for our company. Slovakia has competitive R&D costs in comparison with other CEE countries and flexible people with interest to learn something new.”Florián Kevický, Head of Manufacturing Unit, Siemens Technology Lab, Žilina“The basis for establishing R&D in Slovakia was the request from our customer for establishing local development with the aim to reduce costs, overcome language barriers and respond more rapidly to needs of customers.” Igor Mlynarčík, Project Leader, HTP Slovakia, Vráble“R&D in our case equals supporting of our customers of our System House and R&D is integral part of the house. In Slovakia there is availability of educated and motivated engineers. There are wide options for good cooperation with universities.”Ján Fratrič, Head of Sales, BASF Polyuretány Slovensko, Malacky“There was a need for expansion into Europe. We had compared 10 countries from Central and Eastern Europe. The main comparative criteria were: costs on the specialized workforce (SW engineers), entry & exit costs, level of education and level of teaching, availability of workforce and its turnover, IT infrastructure, the background of IT R&D services. Generally, we are very satisfied with Slovakia such as investment location in software R&D. Our customers are very satisfied with the quality and price of our services.”Roman Klimčík, General Manager, Ixonos Slovakia, Košice“Among the important factors were the legal system, the state of the economy, the business climate and the quality of governance. The number one criterion, however, was the PEOPLE. It was they who had the greatest impact on our company’s growth. In 2001, we didn’t say we’d be employing two thousand employees here by 2008. At first, our expectation was to set up a business centre to support our German-speaking customers by employing approximately 300 people. The result is that we now have a business centre in Bratislava and this is where the largest number of our financial specialists in Europe is based.” Nowadays, Dell European Business Centre in Bratislava employs about 1450 professionals and became a key service centre for the EMEA region."Veit Dengler, Dell Business Centre Bratislava, CEE General Manager "Among the decisive factors that contributed to Slovakia's placing first in our research were the very good language skills of the Slovaks, the competitive voice and data networks, the stable economic and political environment, as well as the geographic location of Bratislava, which is very close to the majority of our EMEA customers operating in Western Europe, while also being close to the Eastern Europe that represents an important emerging market for us."Rolf Lobreyer, Hewlett Packard, EMEA Delivery Manager"We have chosen Slovakia and Prešov for our investment mainly because we found here a flexible and constructive dialogue on the governmental and also local levels. Prešov region can offer us highly qualified human resources and logistical support. Government incentives and willingness of the city give us all the assumptions that Honeywell will be competitive in this environment.”Peter Bracke, CFO of Transport systems Division, Honeywell“The year 2004 meant a milestone in Slovakian history. Accession of Slovakia to the European Union naturally prepared the existing market for the entry of big investors. The year 2004 meant a milestone also in Kia’s history. We have started the construction of our first ever European plant in Slovakia. Kia has become the fastest-growing automaker in the world.“Eek-Hee Lee, President and CEO of Kia Motors Slovakia“Europe is one of the major markets for LCD TV. AUO also regards Europe as the highly potential growth market for its green business. To provide clients direct and prompt supports, strengthen its global presence, and be closer to customers are the key considerations of this investment project. Slovakia is located in the centre of Europe and has joined the eurozone since 2009. The country not only offers high quality and competitive human resources to enterprises but also has stable economic development to drive the growth of GDP.”K. Y. Lee, AUO's Chairman of the BoardSARIO Innovation ServicesInnovate your business with solutions MADE IN SLOVAKIA! "The mission of our company is to be a stable innovation partner for companies that have embarked on the path of intelligent industry. We bring unique technological solutions that are increasingly used also in foreign markets. In this respect, the cooperation with the Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency (SARIO) is very beneficial for us, as we feel strong support in foreign activities and international contacts, especially by initiating innovative events and activities aimed at connecting potential partners in the field of innovation."Ing. Boris Duľa, CEO and Chairman of the Board, CEIT “SARIO provides valuable help in linking big and multinational companies with Slovak small and innovative enterprises. For us, being a small business, it is a convenient way to get closer to bigger companies from abroad. We are very glad for our professional cooperation with SARIO.”Martina Drahošová, Business Development Executive at Ixworx “I am grateful that SARIO helps Slovak innovative companies create opportunities at global companies. It is one of the ways how to provide services from Slovakia with high added value, which pushes our economy to a new, higher level. And not only economically, but also morally and socially.” Ing. Michal Ukropec, CEO, Infotech “SARIO helped us to open many doors abroad as well as dramatically expand the network of our relevant business contacts.”Michal Ondruš, RVmagnetics, CEO “I am grateful that SARIO helps Slovak innovative companies create opportunities at global companies. It is one of the ways how to provide services from Slovakia with high added value, which pushes our economy to a new, higher level. And not only economically, but also morally and socially.”Ing. Michal Ukropec, CEO, Infotech “Cooperation with SARIO enables Slovak enterprises to effectively gain business opportunities in their target market. From a marketing perspective, I consider mutual partnership with SARIO as a significant shortcut in the process and search for suitable partners, contacting them and for establishing relevant communications that can substantially accelerate mutual affinity and unify the perception of reality. From this point, there is only a short journey towards a mutual, successful cooperation.”Miloš Lipka, Co-owner and Executive Manager of Din Technik We are very glad to have the opportunity to cooperate with SARIO during several events and business missions. Our company focuses on innovations and at its beginnings, it was a start-up. For start-ups, it is always difficult to establish itself on the market and build name and credibility and SARIO significantly helped us in that phase. Agency opened for us the doors of international corporations and arranged meetings which resulted in cooperation with these global companies.Miroslav Hájek, eDocu CEO
