Slovakia launches new programme for science and technology
The Slovak government is eager to boost the country's knowledge economy and focus on innovation and research and development (R&D) in a bid to attract foreign investors that do not rely on cheap labour. The aim, states the government, is to raise the salaries of Slovaks to match those of Western European countries. To achieve this, the Finance Minister has launched the Minerva programme. The Roman goddess of wisdom and education, in this case Minerva also stands for 'mobilisation of innovations in the national economy and the development of research and science activities'. Last month, the government presented its first action plans for Minerva. 'The vision of Minerva is to elevate Slovakia's living standards to reach the most developed Western European countries as quickly as possible. We want a Slovakia blossoming with science and research, filled with highly educated and creative people designing and building innovative, high-quality products and services. We want people to think of Slovakia as producers of interesting and technically sophisticated products that are competitive with products from Japan, Finland or even the US,' states the introduction to the Minerva action plans. According to Slovak Prime Minister Mikulás Dzurinda, the actions are the first steps towards putting the theory into practice. For a small country in the heart of Europe, concentrating on human resources and education 'is really an optimal solution', he believes. Minerva, which stems for the Lisbon Strategy, is based on four pillars: investment in people and education; innovations in the field of science and research; the creation of an information technology-based society; and the development of the business environment. The first pillar - education and employment - is aimed at helping Slovak society to think critically and react with flexibility to the changing needs of the labour market. The action plan in this pillar is to build a new, modern education programme accessible to all citizens that encourages and supports talented young people and raises the quality of the country's universities. Concrete plans for this pillar include adult education and life-long learning, improvements in the teaching of foreign languages, support for information and communication technologies (ICTs) in school and new financial schemes for universities. The second Minerva pillar - research and innovation - offers stronger state support for science and technology in order to encourage the private sector to get more involved in scientific fields. Plans are underway to create a strong central agency to support R&D. Furthermore, the action plan also includes a national scientific policy, a financial support mechanism for post-graduates and PhD students, and is aimed at boosting the mobility of scientists. The government also hopes to make science more popular and make it a highly respected career. A new central web portal will keep the public informed of the latest scientific happenings and help innovative companies to find financial support through incubators and venture capital. The action plan for the third pillar - building an IT-based society - aims to ensure basic computer skills for everyone and easily accessible Internet connections, both at home and in public places. The plan includes linking the various administrations of state institutions thus reducing the massive duplication of effort that prevails at the moment. Finally, the fourth pillar of Minerva - the business environment - has been recently addressed through the numerous reforms passed by the government. Issues that still need to be addressed include a lack of law enforcement and a stagnating capital market preventing further improvement.
Countries
Slovakia