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Investors Start to Feel a Lack of Qualified Labor Force in Slovakia
Foreign investors in Slovakia are starting to feel a shortage of qualified labor force in Slovakia, the director general of the Labor, Social Affairs and Family Office, Jan Sihelsky told a news conference on Tuesday. This concerns chiefly employers from the engineering and automotive industries, electrical engineering, construction and farm sectors, he specified. "All these branches signalize that there will not be enough school graduates to satisfy their needs from the viewpoint of professionalism and qualification said Mr. Sihelsky. He sees one of the potential sources of qualified labor force in those who are currently unemployed. "We must systematically prepare them based on employers’ needs by suitable re-qualification programs” he said.

Roman Catholic Church Greets Health Ministry’s Change of Mind
The Slovak Conference of Bishops welcomes the decision of the Health Ministry, which abandoned its plan to cancel the right to exercise conscientious objection for physicians. "However, we remind of the need to adopt a treaty with the Holy See on conscientious objection, since in real life we could see that this issue often depends on the decision of one minister and that is why it is very delicate," said the Slovak Conference of Bishops spokesperson Jan Kovacik. According to the original proposal of the Health Ministry, a healthcare provider should not have an option to reject performing a healthcare service that is against his or her conscience, such as an abortion, artificial fertilization, experiments with human organs, cloning, sterilization and provision of contraceptives.

Employers Agree with Budget - Trade Unions without Clear Stance
The draft of the state budget for 2008 has been approved, albeit with certain reservations, by representatives of employers on Monday while their counterparts representing employees will express their definitive stance on it only after they have received its final version. At the session of Economic and Social Council on Monday in Bratislava, the employee representatives only presented comments on the proposal. Although the employers approved the 2008 state budget’s proposal, they have objections on several points.
Slovakia should have a Commercial Attaché at More Embassies
The Economy Ministry plans to increase the number of Slovakia’s commercial attaches abroad. It plans to open twelve new trade-economic departments in the following three years, reads the document entitled "Strengthening of Economic Dimension of Diplomacy in Work of the Economy Ministry’s Next year, the new trade sections should be opened in Indonesia, Kuwait, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Argentina. In 2009 and 2010 the ministry plans to open next ones in Taiwan, Vietnam, Brazil, Libya, Germany, India, Thailand and Cuba.