PRAGUE. MARCH 7. INTERFAX CENTRAL EUROPE - The Slovak government has approved a proposed investment incentives package for South Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung Electronics to build a SKK 16 bln (EUR 466 mln) LCD-panels plant in the country, Slovak Economy Minister Lubomir Jahnatek minister said Wednesday.
"I believe the government has made the necessary moves which the foreign investor demanded," Jahnatek told reporters after a Wednesday Cabinet meeting at which the draft proposal was discussed. "Now it is up to the investor whether the contract will be signed. The government can do nothing more."
The package, which the online edition of Slovak business daily Hospodarske noviny (HN) said could be worth SKK 4.5 bln, includes subsidies for job creation and the training of employees, according to the minister.
Samsung is expected to reply to the proposal in the coming days.
"The approved investment incentives proposal contract with Samsung Electronics outlines basic parameters of investment conditions," ministry spokesman Branislav Zvara told Interfax in a telephone interview. "We expect a final decision from Samsung in the coming days."
The Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency (SARIO), the state agency promoting inward investment, had said earlier that Samsung was due to make its definitive decision on the placement of the plant by end-March.
Samsung already runs its largest European plant in the southwestern Slovak town of Galanta, where it makes LCD TVs and monitors, plasma screens and other appliances. The proposed plant would probably be located in Trnava.
The South Korean company invested a total of EUR 131.4 mln in Slovakia between 2002 and 2006 and became Slovakia's fourth-largest exporter during the first half of last year, according to HN.
Japanese firm Sony Europe - with which Samsung runs a joint-venture in South Korea to produce TV panels - announced in September last year it planned to build a new flat-screen TV plant in Nitra, Slovakia, with an initial EUR 73 mln investment, aimed at tapping rising demand in Europe. It already has a plant in Trnava.
The Czech Republic and Hungary are also reportedly on Samsung's shortlist for the LCD-panels plant.