Slovaquie

This report assesses the linkages between foreign direct investment (FDI) and domestic small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Slovak Republic. It provides policy recommendations to national and subnational governments on how to foster productivity and innovation spillovers from FDI to the local economy. The report looks at the quality of investment the country attracts, the absorptive capacity of Slovak SMEs, and a broad range of economic, business and policy conditions that can strengthen knowledge and technology diffusion from FDI to domestic SMEs. It also provides a diagnostic assessment of the core FDI-SME spillover diffusion channels, namely value chain linkages, strategic partnerships, labour mobility, and competition and imitation effects. The report provides an overview of the Slovak policy arrangements for promoting international investment, SME performance and innovation, and regional development. It does so by taking a close look at multi-level coordination, stakeholder consultation and impact evaluation. It then reviews the policy mix in support FDI-SME linkages and spillovers and proposes concrete areas for further policy reforms. The last chapter introduces a regional lens, focusing on the regions of Banská Bystrica and Košice. This report is part of a multi-year European Commission-OECD project on strengthening FDI-SME ecosystems and is the second pilot review for future country assessments.

Subnational governments carry out more than 60% of total public procurement in OECD countries. As such, public procurement can offer a powerful tool for cities to boost local growth and advance their strategic priorities, ranging from innovation and inclusion to the transition to a low-carbon economy. Bratislava, the most populated and richest municipality in the Slovak Republic, carried out 39% of its expenditures through public procurement in 2019. The COVID-19 crisis has enhanced both the urgency and the opportunity to improve the city's procurement system and to rethink 'what' and 'how' to procure. In this context, Bratislava is developing new directives to make its procurement processes more efficient. This report offers recommendations on how Bratislava can use public procurement strategically to identify value-for-money solutions, foster competition, and promote sustainable urban development. The report also includes a concrete case study on Bratislava’s public procurement for street lighting, which provides methodological guidance on the analysis of needs, market engagement, and tender design.

This report presents the findings and recommendations of the OECD review of SME and Entrepreneurship Policy in the Slovak Republic. It examines how to address the challenges of stimulating more productive entrepreneurship, supporting enterprise scale-up, stimulating SME exports and global value chain participation, increasing SME innovation and innovative entrepreneurship, and making entrepreneurship more inclusive across the population. The report examines SME and entrepreneurship performance and the business environment for SMEs and entrepreneurship in the Slovak Republic, giving benchmarks against other OECD countries. The report also takes a close look at arrangements to ensure policy leadership, co-ordination and consultation in this field. It examines the government support programmes across areas including SME and entrepreneurship financing, supporting innovation, building SME workforce skills and public procurement. It also examines the east-west divide in SME and entrepreneurship activity and their supporting conditions in the Slovak Republic and how to strengthen regional entrepreneurial ecosystems across the country. Further chapters focus on SME digitalisation and the promotion of self-employment and social entrepreneurship to strengthen the labour market attachment of the Slovak Republic's Roma community.

Ce rapport est une édition spéciale du Tableau de bord de l’OCDE sur le financement des PME et des entrepreneurs, publication phare de l’OCDE. Il examine en détail les conséquences du COVID-19 sur l’accès des PME au financement, ainsi que les mesures prises en conséquence par les pouvoirs publics. Il apparaît qu’avant la crise, les conditions de financement étaient globalement favorables pour les PME et les entrepreneurs, qui bénéficiaient de faibles taux d’intérêt, de critères accommodants d’octroi des crédits et d’une offre de plus en plus diversifiée d’instruments de financement. Mais la crise du COVID‑19 a profondément bouleversé l’accès des PME au financement. Plus particulièrement, l’effondrement brutal du chiffre d’affaires des entreprises a provoqué de graves pénuries de liquidités qui ont mis en danger la survie de bon nombre d’entreprises viables. Ce rapport fait état d’une augmentation de la demande de prêts bancaires au cours du premier semestre de 2020, et d’une stabilité de l’offre de crédit grâce à l’action des pouvoirs publics. Parallèlement, on a observé un recul d’autres sources de financement, en particulier l’apport de fonds propres au stade du démarrage. Le rapport réunit des données sur le périmètre et l’ampleur des mesures prises par les gouvernements dans le monde, et en précise les principales caractéristiques. Il décrit les principaux enjeux stratégiques du financement des PME qui se poseront au cours des prochaines phases de la pandémie ; il s’agira en effet d’éviter le surendettement des PME, de promouvoir une gamme diversifiée d’instruments de financement, de stimuler la création d’entreprises et de renforcer la résilience des PME par des mesures structurelles.

The Slovak Republic joined the European Union in 2004, the Schengen area in 2007 and the euro in 2009. These events, coupled with decentralisation reform and the creation of administrative regions, have brought significant change. While overall growth has been impressive compared to OECD countries overall, benefits have not accrued equally across the country. Public investment could potentially improve regional conditions and attract private funding, but governance bottlenecks stand in the way. This case study shows that the main obstacles to effective public investment are linked to high local fragmentation as well as the challenges national and subnational administrations face in designing and implementing investment strategies that correspond to local needs. Drawing on a detailed set of indicators, the study provides recommendations to address these challenges and make the most of public investment in the Slovak Republic.