Danko: Kia Wants Slovakia to Complete Highway Construction Quickly

Danko: Kia Wants Slovakia to Complete Highway Construction Quickly

Seoul, June 26 (TASR-correspondent) – Parliamentary Chairman Andrej Danko (Slovak National Party/SNS) held talks with officials from Samsung and Kia Motors Corporation in South Korea’s capital Seoul on Monday.

A Slovak parliamentary delegation discussed the need for educational processes and new recruitment with Samsung representatives, while Kia representatives voiced the wish that Slovakia would complete its infrastructure as soon as possible.

“Concerning the completion of infrastructure, we spoke about problems emerging during construction from the viewpoint of ownership rights, as well as the environmental burden. I think that these investors do have an understanding of these issues, but they expect Slovakia to complete highway construction as soon as possible. Therefore, the position that Parliament takes on loosening the debt brake will be very important,” Danko told Slovak journalists.

Following Monday’s meeting in Seoul, Parliamentary Vice-chairman Andrej Hrnciar (Most-Hid) also stressed the need to bring talks on the so-called debt brake to a successful conclusion as soon as possible. He views this as the only way to meet the investors half-way, as their plans “are very interesting for us also in the future”.

“Representatives of the aforementioned companies told us about their future plans as well. I was personally pleasantly surprised that more than half of the cars that Kia plans to sell in Europe next year will be manufactured at the Zilina plant. In order to meet this goal, they need a certain level of cooperation with the state in terms of completing infrastructure,” explained Hrnciar.

MPs of the governing parties – Smer-SD, SNS and Most-Hid – submitted a draft resolution on loosening the so-called debt brake to Parliament last week. They sought to oblige the Finance and Transport Ministries to submit by October 15 documents to the financial committee based on which the committee would prepare an amendment to the law on the debt brake, introducing an exception for financing highway construction. However, MPs adjourned the talks on this proposal until the parliamentary session in September.

The Slovak parliamentary delegation, featuring Danko and two parliamentary vice-chairs, Hrnciar and Martin Glvac (Smer-SD), will stay in South Korea until noon on Thursday. On Tuesday, Danko is due to appear in a panel discussion featuring parliamentary chairs of Eurasian countries.

In addition to the conference, Danko will hold several bilateral talks during his working trip. He met Chairman of Russia’s State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin on Monday.