Posted on 01/27/2007 8:52:58 AM PST by Grzegorz 246
BRATISLAVA, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Slovakia expects South Korea's Samsung Electronics to decide by the end of February where to site a roughly $600 million LCD-panel plant, Slovak state investment agency SARIO said on Tuesday.
Slovakia is a frontrunner for the new project, Slovak officials have said, as the Korean firm already has its largest flat-screen TV plant in Europe in the southwestern town of Galanta. Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic were also seen to be in play.
"Samsung promised to give us their decision on the plant by the end of March. But we expect them to decide by the end of February," the government investment agency (SARIO) spokeswoman Jana Murinova said.
Murinova also said official talks between Samsung, the world's top LCD maker, and Slovakia were completed last week, but she declined to give details.
In November, the economy ministry said Samsung was expected to spend 16 billion crowns ($598.8 million) by 2010 on the project, which should cut the firm's logistics costs. Foreign investors have been flocking to Slovakia in recent years, lured by cheap labour and low taxes. The inflow of funds propelled the economy to a record 9.8 percent annual growth in the third quarter last year.
I can't IMAGINE why they wouldn't want to manufacture in France or Germany. I'm completely baffled.
/heavy sarcasm
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