Slovakia: a Little-Big Country for Business

Kostiantyn M. Buialo

The coming into force of the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement’s economic section and simultaneous deterioration of domestic market conditions is forcing Ukrainian business to develop and implement strategies for entering the markets of EU member states.

When people speak about doing business in one of the EU countries, they often forget that the European Union provides residents of its member states with four major freedoms: free movement of goods, free movement of persons, free movement of services, and free movement of capital. However, in order to take advantage of these freedoms, both individuals and legal entities have to be residents of one of those EU member states.

Therefore, an entrepreneur who is considering doing business on EU territory faces the issue of selecting a country, residency in which would be an optimal “point of entry” to the EU market. After all, having gained resident status in any of the European Union countries a person gets the opportunity to offer goods and services freely and to relocate capital across the whole of EU territory.

Hence, let us draw your attention to Slovakia as an optimal “point of entry” to the European market. It is a country that shares a common border with Ukraine, where it is rather easy to overcome non-tariff barriers, and where residents traditionally have a positive attitude towards Ukraine and its citizens...