Mezei István: Urban development in Slovakia (Pécs-Somorja, 2010)

5. Regional organization in Slovakia

The administrative region as a development unit

first of all for the American market. The plant employs 1,500 people. The German company Hella Slovakia produces lights for cars in Kočovce and Bánovce nad Bebravou. In Nová Dubnica, the German Leoni Autokabel Slowakia operates a plant for assembling electric units. In Dubnica nad Váhom and Považská Bystrica, the German Sauer-Danfoss produces mechanical and hydraulic units, and in Prievidza, the Japanese Yazaki Slovakia manufactures electrical spare parts.

Besides the most successful sector of auto manufacturing, there are, of course, some other plants in the region, too. In Nováky a power station operates using brown coal. It has been in Italian ownership since 2006. The housing estates in Prievidza were built for its employees and the workers of the nearby brown coal mine in the communist era. The Swiss firm Nestlé has established a plant in the town. In Bánovce nad Bebravou the Austrian Gabor has set up a boot and shoe factory. In Trenčín there was no traditional textile industry - there was only one textile factory at the end of the 19th century - but large factories were built there in the communist era. At present, three of the largest textile and clothes factories are in this region. In Nová Dubnica Milex, a food industrial plant is operated by Graupe Soparind Bongrain, a French dairy firm.

The leading administrative role of Nitra, a county town, goes back to historical Hungary, but it was also an episcopal see before the Hungarian conquest. It lost its county town rank first at the time of the new Czechoslovak state, then again in the communist era. However, as the centre of the Nitra region, it has been an administrative centre since 1996. The town has special significance in Slovak historical mythology, because as the eastern capital of the Moravian Empire Nitra is looked upon as the ‘mother of all Slovak towns’.

The Nitra region can be considered an agricultural region; most of its area is suitable for farming. The alluvial deposit of the rivers crossing it (the Danube, Váh, Nitra and Hron) made this area fertile. The identity of the people living there is still determined first of all by agriculture. Industries can only be found sporadically, (the chemical industry in Šaľa, ship building in Komárno, the machine industry in Tlmače and paper manufacturing in Štúrovo); food industrial plants, on the other hand, occur more evenly. The traffic conditions of the regional centre are excellent: it takes only three-quarters of an hour to get to Bratislava on the motorway. Eastwards, however, there is no such a well-built road network. Due to frequent accidents, the very busy road from Nitra to Zlaté Moravce is often called ‘the road of death'. The largest port of the coun129