Žilina Region

Žilina region is situated in the north – west of Slovakia. It borders on the Czech Republic in the north - west and Poland in the north. Current regional borders are established by the legislation of 1996. The area of Žilina region consists of five historic regions. Orava, Liptov and Turiec had a statute of counties, which were independent administrative units in the past, the regions of Kysuce and Horné Považie were administratively part of the Trenčín county. At present the region borders on Prešov region in the east, Banská Bystrica region in the south and Trenčín region in the south – west.

The City of Žilina with its rich history and busy economic and social life is the centre of the region as well as the real metropolis of the north – west Slovakia.

One of the strengths of Žilina region is its nature. More than half the region is covered by areas with various degrees of environmental protection including its four national parks – the Tatra National Park, National Park of Nízke Tatry, National Park of Veľká Fatra and National Park of Malá Fatra. Varied nature offers uncountable options for summer and winter sports and recreation. Among the most important ski resorts are Veľká Rača, Vrátna Free Time Zone, Martinky Winter Park, Jasenská dolina, Snowland Valčianska dolina, Skipark Ružomberok, Jasná, Ski Park Kubínska hoľa and Zverovka - Spálená. Rich sources of mineral and thermal waters led to the development of spas represented by facilities in Rajecké Teplice, Turčianske Teplice and Lúčky, as well as to construction of aquaparks such as Spa&Aquapark Turčianske Teplice, Thermal Park Bešeňová, Aquapark Liptovský Mikuláš and Meander Park Oravice. Enormous sports and recreation options are offered and the dams of Oravská priehrada and Liptovská Mara.

The wealth of traditions and cultural life is reflected in the fact that the City of Martin, the 2nd largest city in Žilina region, was in 1994 declared by law to be the centre of Slovak national culture. It was mostly thanks to its importance for cultural and political history of the Slovak nation. Many institutions of national importance still have their seats in this city. The history of the region can be observed from its cultural monuments, especially its castles and castle ruins. Orava castle is the most visited one. Exhibits are also to be seen at the castles of Budatín and Strečno. The most important representatives of sacral architecture are wooden churches in Svätý Kríž, Tvrdošín, Leštiny and Istebné. Nice examples of folk architecture are also preserved at many places. The most famous one is at Vlkolínec, declared as part of UNESCO cultural heritage. Open air museums in Zuberec, Martin, Vychylovka, Čičmany and Pribylina make up a special source of education as well.

Transport

Road transport

Several important international routes cross Žilina region:

E50 Czech Republic – Žilina – Košice – Ukraine
E75 Poland – Čadca – Žilina – Hungary – Austria
E77 Poland – Trstená – Dolný Kubín – Šahy – Hungary
E442 Czech Republic – Makov – Bytča – Žilina with connections to E50 and E75

The most important transport route is the D1 motorway connecting the region in the east – west direction. Its completion is expected in 2012, whereas the motorway tunnel Višňové – Dubná Skala between Žilina and Martin is considered to be its most difficult part.The D3 motorway connecting the region in the north – south direction in the region of Kysuce and the R3 expressway connecting the region in the north – south direction in the regions of Turiec and Orava are under construction as well.

Railway transport

The region has started to change its rural character into the industrial one since 1870’s thanks to the construction of Košice – Bohumín railway connecting the region in the east – west direction. At present, this connection is part of all important European railway corridors (AGTC, AGC, TEN, Paneuropean corridors V and VI) assuring passenger transport as well as freight transport in the corridor:

Czech Republic – Čadca – Žilina – Vrútky – Liptovský Mikuláš – Košice - Ukraine.

Several important routes are connected to this track:

120 - Žilina – Bratislava – Hungary – Austria
129 - Čadca – Poland
170 - Vrútky – Zvolen – Hungary
181 - Kraľovany - Trstená

Air transport

Žilina international airport assures the connection with Prague airport twice a day. Its 1,150 m long runway is suitable for aircraft like Airbus 310, Boeing 737, ATR etc. The airport serves more than 10,000 passengers a year. Žilina airport industrial park, which is being prepared, will provide opportunities for the development of air transport, logistics, as well as free time facilities for the passengers.

Economy

Decisive sectors of the Žilina region economy are industry and construction. Industrial nature of the region is influenced by closeness of industrial areas in the Czech Republic and Poland as well as the lack of fertile soil. The development of the regional economy structure has been marked by strenghtening the service sector in recent years. There are 12,246 businesses registered in Žilina region as of 31 December 2009, which is a 9.6% share within Slovak republic.

Industry

Industry remarkably contributes to the economic growth, employment and performance of the region. The receipts for own performance and goods of industrial corporations from Žilina region in 2007 gained 7.4 billion EUR. In 2009 it was 7 203.4 billion EUR, which is a result of the world economic depression. Industrial leaders from the point of the share of receipts are automotive industry (36.2%), electricity, gas and water supply (20.9%), and manufacture of pulp, paper and paper products (9.4%). The year-on-year growth has been marked in the sectors of chemicals and chemical products (by 27.9%), water supply (by 5.6%), and electrical equipment production (by 2.2%). In terms of the figures for Slovakia, the share of Žilina region on the receipts of industry in 2009 was 12.5%, which was the third biggest share after Bratislava and Trnava regions.

Industry in Žilina region is diversified with participation of various sectors. Corporations with technologies of a higher rank (H-tech + MH-tech) make up the most of all corporations in the region. Engineering industry belongs to the most important sectors in the region. Due to the orientation of Slovak engineering industry towards automotive industry the biggest potential lies at the production of components, whereas the most significant areas are manufacture of rolling bearings and gearboxes. Automotive industry is becoming the driving engine of industry thanks to foreign investments in the region. Stagnation of chemical industry can be observed whereas the manufacture of rubber and plastic products is getting up.

Support of investments in Žilina region

Žilina region belongs to the most supported regions in Slovakia from the point of provided investment incentives. In 2001 – 2007 there were eight investment projects supported in Žilina region with the total sum of support at 12,583.873 billion SKK (417.71 billion EUR). Another three projects in Žilina region received 20.89 billion EUR altogether in the period 2009 – ½ 2010.

The most commonly supported sector was automotive industry, which became the leader of the economic growth of the region thanks to this support. State aid provided to KIA MOTORS is the biggest from the point of its size and it is also the most expensive aid from the point of the costs per created jobs and generated investments of the receiver from all of the projects in Slovakia. Unlike European producers, the Korean manufacturer could not rely on supplies from neighbouring countries, which led to the arrival of other Korean subcontractors of KIA MOTORS (e.g. Dong Wong Metal Industry, Dong Hee, Mobis, Hysco). The supplies for the investor from Slovak suppliers made up 75 % to 90 % of the purchases made in the Slovak Republic in the preparation phasis. Similarly the share of local purchases and supplies from the companies established in Slovakia is relatively high and exceeds the number of foreign suppliers.

On the basis of the Slovak government directive No. 145/2008, Žilina region also belongs to four most preferred regions in Slovakia, where the maximum intensity of state aid per investment purpose can reach 50% of the total costs.

Higher education

Žilina region is the seat of three institutions of a higher education and one faculty of a university established in Bratislava (Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin). More than 2,500 graduates leave these schools every year, most of them finishing their studies at the University of Žilina.

Research, development and innovations

According to the Framework Innovation Strategy of Žilina Region the biggest innovation potential is concentrated in engineering industry, electro - technical industry (including information and communication technologies), wood processing industry and tourism.

Since 2010 there has been an overview of the information on innovations and their support in Žilina region at the Žilina Region Innovation Portal at http://inovacie.regionzilina.sk/inovacie/.

Employment

Positive trend towards the growth of employment connected with the arrival of foreign investors as well as improving situation of domestic businesses after the EU enlargement lasted till the first half of 2008. There was a total growth of employment, as the number of jobs grew by 24.5 thousand between 2003 and 2007. Employment grew by 5.8% year-on-year as of 30 June 2008 in Žilina region, which was the biggest annual growth in Slovakia. The second half of 2008 was negatively influenced by the impacts of the economic depression, which had its results in the development of employment too. Although the overall yearly results for 2008 showed the growth of employment by 3.2%, the trend in its last months was opposite. In 2009 there were 297.7 thousand employed persons in Slovakia, which is 97.2% of the previous year’s results. Žilina region marked an even bigger decrease in employment, as in 2009 it only reached 95.8% of the previous year’s results with its 297.7 employed persons.

Unemployment

In 2007 the European Union experienced one of the biggest decreases of unemployment, whereas improvement was marked by all member states. The biggest decrease occurred in Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. Nevertheless, Slovakia and Poland still have the highest rate of unemployment within the EU. With the highest unemployment rate in the EU in 2007 at the level of 11.1%, which makes 270.8 thousand persons, Slovakia was the only EU member state whose unemployment rate was above 10%. Banská Bystrica region experiences the highest unemployment rate (20%). Prešov and Košice regions follow. On the contrary, the lowest unemployment rates can be seen in Bratislava region (4.2%). The number of unemployed persons in Žilina region has decreased from 57.1 thousand persons in 2003 to 33.6 thousand persons in 2007 and continued in this trend also in 2008. Unemployment started to grow in the fourth quarter of 2008 as a result of the economic depression, which fully affected the numbers in January 2009. While in 2008 unemployment in Žilina region was at 7.7%, in 2009 it rose to 10.6%, which was still under the national average. The raise of unemployment was mostly a result of collective redundancies in bigger employers, e.g. Kinex Bytča, Kinex – Strojáreň, Ina Kysuce, Rubena Slovakia etc.

Labour cost

All regions in Slovakia excluding Bratislava region belong to the regions with the lowest labour cost in the EU, as an average labour cost here is less than 4.50 EUR per hour.Average monthly wage cost in 2008 was at 723 EUR. However, it is possible to observe big regional disparities in the labour cost. Its level in Bratislava region (969,9 EUR) is remarkably higher than in the rest of Slovakia. Žilina region comes fourth with an average monthly wage at 656.9 EUR. Wages in industry are higher than the average monthly wage in the economy of Slovakia. At the national level, the average wage in industry as of 2009 was at 754.07 EUR. The highest wage was in the supply of electricity, gas, steam and hot water (1186.98 EUR), and in the information and communication services (1511,18 EUR).