Mezei István: Urban development in Slovakia (Pécs-Somorja, 2010)
5. Regional organization in Slovakia
Regional organization in Slovakia poses of tourism. The four national parks (the High Tatras, the Low Tatras, the Slovak Paradise, and Pienninek National Park) and the large reservoirs (Lake Zemplínska šírava in the Zemplín Hills, and the reservoirs at Veľká Domaša and Starina nad Cirochou) can be enjoyable holiday destinations. The transportation conditions of the city are rather poor, but the motorway starting from the capital city is already being built. On the other hand, it is an advantage that on the motorway to Košice the airport is within easy reach, and from there it only takes half an hour to get to Vienna or Prague by air. Due to the nearby location of the Soviet Union, a chemical works was built in Humenné, a textile factory in Prešov and a boot and shoe factory in Bardejov at the time of communist industrialization. Shoemaking has a long tradition in this area. Actually, professional mass production was launched in World War I to satisfy military needs. During the communist era small factories were closed down and a large factory was built, whose capacity was far beyond Slovak demand. Therefore, after 1989 the production declined. After foreign capital had appeared in the region, this industry started to develop. The development of the textile industry was also due to the fact that the Soviet Union was rather close to this area. Consequently, the five largest textile industrial factories can be found in this region (Twista, Tylex Slovakia, VSK, Svik, Tatrasvit). The leading chemical works is Chemosvit, a Svit-based company, which produces plastic wrap. At Humenné a chemical industrial park has been established where seven foreign investors employ about 3,000 people. The former Chemlon factory was bought by a French firm from the state, and was divided into two parts. Rhodia Industral Yarns works for the auto manufacturing industry, Nylstar for the textile industry. Both companies produce synthetic fibres to meet the market requirements. The American Whirlpool, the large manufacturer of household appliances, is based in Poprad and so is Tatramat Poprad, which was bought by the German Stiebel Eltron. Tatravagónka Poprad has been repairing goods carriages since 1922. In the communist era, the towns along the Soviet border such as Medzilaborce, Michalovce and Sobrance built machine industrial factories and that was their golden age. In Stropkov Tesla built an electrotechnical plant. Košice is the second-largest regional centre of the country, but lags behind Bratislava in every respect. It is a town with central functions, but only at a regional level as the centre of Eastern Slovakia. It has hardly any institutions of national importance. It is a traffic junction, or rather a 134
