Address by the President of the Slovak Republic upon the opening of the Slovak-Syrian Economic Forum, Bratislava, 30. 4. 2009

Your Excellency Mr. President,
Esteemed Ministers,
Esteemed Syrian Businesspeople and Dear Guests,
Esteemed Slovak Business Community,
Ladies and Gentlemen!

The Roman statesman and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero said “Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time”. We have gathered here so that we do not miss the proper moment, that specific opportunity to present to each other future opportunities for trade and economic cooperation between the Syrian Arab Republic and the Slovak Republic.

I would like to assure members of the business community present here that President Al-Assad and I spoke about the potential for Slovak-Syrian economic cooperation during our meeting yesterday. During that meeting we agreed that we have the beginning of a new era of communication, cooperation and trade ahead of us.

Someone could ask me whether it is safe to launch new investment activities when we are experiencing the largest failure of the world economy and the largest loss of faith in financial markets that we have ever seen.

Economists know that good managers with foresight can actually use times of crisis to help their firms grow, to obtain competitive advantage and achieve a good starting position for further business activities.

Yes, the world is struggling to work through the effects of this unprecedented loss of trust in the financial system of “western countries”. The crisis forces governments to intervene in internal markets and to take supportive and restorative measures. The immunity of the Slovak Republic’s economy to the illness of global crisis is not unlimited, but it is not a reason for excessive pessimism.

The Government of the Slovak Republic is in a state of the highest readiness and strives to mitigate the effects of the crisis before they can cause irreversible harm to the economy. Slovakia is very well-equipped to come out of the economic crisis without serious losses. I am convinced that regeneration of the Slovak economy will begin as soon as next year and that Slovakia’s gross domestic product will once again grow.

I would like to point out that the recent adoption of the Euro as Slovakia’s currency is one of the most significant reasons for the influx of investors to the Slovak market. The Euro has made it easier and more effective for firms to enter the Slovak economic space and through it to enter the European Union. These investors are motivated by faith that sooner or later, the boom will return and with it, profits proportional to their investments in their projects.

Slovakia has achieved political stability and therefore can offer the potential of future economic growth. Why not use this factor to intensify trade between Slovakia and Syria? We and the entire economic world perceive very clearly that Syria has strong economic potential. For this reason, we expect that today’s economic forum will at least partially overcome a lack of information about one another and help identify concrete interests and realistic opportunities for cooperation.

Finally, the settling of Syria’s foreign debt and signature of economic agreements on support and protection of investments, as well as the elimination of double taxation provides room for strengthening economic cooperation, export and the influx of new investment.

I see room for engagement by Slovak firms in many Syrian projects in the areas of building infrastructure, the energy sector, irrigation systems, waster water management and other projects that help develop Syria’s economy. For example, I think that there are concrete opportunities for participation by Slovak firms in projects related to development and modernization of the railway system in Syria.

Dear Mr. President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I don’t want to talk too much about statistics as that is more for the experts from the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who, I hope will answer your specific questions and fulfil your requests.

Therefore, please just allow me to wish you much success in your discussions and a very pleasant stay in Slovakia. Let’s use this opportunity to be wise in time.

Thank you for your attention.