Slovakia buying industrial land to prepare for future investors

Slovakia's Ministry of Economy is planning to buy five plots of land totaling 250 ha in order to build industrial parks around Košice. Having lost a major investment from one of the biggest automobile giants once, the government doesn't want to lose again because of a lack of land. "We lost the BMW investment a couple of years ago because we didn't have an industrial park that was prepared," said Economic Minister Richard Sulik. "In order to prevent that from happening in the future, we're preparing several investment parks that will be immediately ready to use for the construction of a factory." In addition to buying the land and handling legal arrangements for its sale, the government will complete key infrastructure investments and secure the necessary permits and an EIA. He added that the state would be willing to pay considerably more than the price of agricultural land, but not as much as land in an industrial park costs. In reporting on the story, Pravda notes that having decided for Debrecen, BMW postponed construction of its new factory indefinitely following the outbreak of coronavirus.