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2006 Speeches

Higher Education Initiative

American Chamber of Commerce Kosice
Lunch Event for Business Community September 27, 2007
Remarks by Ambassador Rodolphe Vallee

Bratislava, September 27, 2006

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am very pleased to be back in Kosice, where people like you have big ideas.

I have heard about the Kosice "IT Valley" and hope to learn more about it while I'm here. I understand that unemployment is still a great concern. But I have heard also that in some new industries, namely Internet service providers, your universities cannot turn out graduates fast enough.

Before I move on to my main topic - our Higher Education Initiative -- let me start with a look at the Embassy's key political and economic priorities for the coming year:

  • Promoting American exports and foreign direct investment in Slovakia: Certainly the Kosice region is a prime example of the benefits of investment for both countries with key investors including U.S. Steel, Molex and Getrag Ford. Our strong economic ties with Slovakia help balance EU influence and provide a sturdy bilateral framework for our overall relationship.
  • One way to promote U.S. products is to promote economic prosperity and security in Slovakia. We will continue to encourage the new government to maintain the program of reform started by the previous government, and adopt policies that will enhance opportunities for U.S. trade and investment and increase economic growth and employment in both countries.
  • Global energy security is a top priority for the U.S. administration. I was at a conference yesterday in Bratislava that was focused on this issue. The best way to promote energy security is allow pricing signals with respect to energy resources reflect the cost of the produce. If the market is allowed to work, with appropriate encouragement and targeted social protections from governments, we can achieve a diversified mix of conventional, advanced, and renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies.
  • One of our main goals is to maintain the close cooperation that we have had on international issues with Slovakia. Not only are they an important member of NATO and the EU, but Slovakia currently holds a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Slovaks - both the government and the vibrant NGO sector - continue to play an important role in promoting stability in the region through their work in the Balkans, and neighboring countries such as Belarus and Ukraine.
  • Slovakia has been an important partner in the fight against terrorism around the world. We hope that Slovakia will maintain its important presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  • We will encourage improved protections and increased opportunities for minorities, especially Roma.

We appreciate your input to our Embassy's agenda as business people with a keen sense of the local realities. And I hope to hear from you in our later discussion and over the course of this year.

So let me turn to my main topic: how you as business people can support --and profit from - the exciting work going on at Slovak universities and institutions of higher education.

Like a lot of good ideas, other businesses have already gotten in early on this growth market!

The Embassy's initiative is broad. It includes encouraging greater cooperation between American and Slovak universities in the areas of joint research and joint study programs of all kinds. Our Public Affairs and Foreign Commercial Service offices will be the leads on this effort.

But perhaps of most interest to you is our effort to build new and expanded partnerships between the private sector and Slovak education institutions.

Since you are in the process of creating your own Kosice IT Valley, you have already considered the stunning examples of the Research Triangle in North Carolina or the Route 128 high-tech zone around Boston. We support the idea of innovative industries tapping into the research strengths and skilled workforce base of a university city because it works. The business start-up rate in Research Triangle Park is the highest in the state of North Carolina, the unemployment rate the lowest, and per capita income and average wages are well above the state average.

Our Public Affairs Officer Ed Kemp visited 15 of the leading Slovak institutions last week, along with an educational management expert from Texas whom we funded. Their task was to find out, among other things, just what is the extent of private sector-university partnerships.

And they were excited by what they found. There are some skillful marketing and institutional development managers out there -- deans and faculty members who are seeking out joint research or graduate hiring schemes of great mutual benefit.

Here are a few examples from the universities' perspective:

  • Bratislava Technical University has established an "incubator" which this year supported the start-up of nine small enterprises.
  • Zilina University has a high level of activity with Slovak and international companies: a Siemans Software House which employs about 100 recently graduated students, a Center of Productivity working with several firms on logistics and security software, and another research group working on designs for Matador Tires, among other projects.
  • The Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava showed its innovative edge by having its students come up with a winning design for Volkwagen's Touareg.
  • And your local Technical University has dozens of joint research projects with such firms as Cisco and others.

Looking at this from the industry point of view, corporations have also approached the universities with specific proposals.

  • ON Semiconductor Slovakia, which is a U.S.-based supplier of power components and system with Slovak operations headquartered in Piestany, is a prime example of the benefits of cooperation with an educational institution. ON has collaborated with the school of electrical engineering at Slovak Technical University in Bratislava for the past six years through a program called ONMist. The ONMist center, located on the STU campus, has 15 permanent employees, all of whom are former STU students, working on the design of integrated circuits, characterization of semi-conductor devices, and modeling.
  • Dell Slovakia has several informal programs with educational institutes in Bratislava. One such program is the "DELL Graduate program," which enables recent university graduates (the program included 22 graduates this year) with limited or no work experience to gain relevant job experience in Dell's EMEA Finance Center. The company will soon open internet cafeterias at Comenius and Economics University.
  • And while U.S. Steel Košice has a long-lasting cooperation with all local universities, its collaboration with Technical University Kosice in the field of research and education is the most significant. The company has developed a Summer Internship Program for university students and a Scholarship Program to support university study for talented students living from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The point is obvious: this kind of partnership makes good business sense. And it's the kind of contribution to the future of this country and to its young people that corporate citizens want to make.

I am launching this higher education initiative in Kosice today with my pledge: to give my personal effort on behalf of any company or any Slovak educational institution that is serious about finding or expanding public-private partnerships. Let's help this important sector of the Slovak economy grow. And at the same time, let's give U.S. firms new opportunities to profit from this growth.

We will work closely with the Ministry of Education in promoting opportunities for the institutions of higher education of this country.

From the side of the U.S. Government, the Embassy will contribute institution management training, expert exchange visits between Slovakia and the United States and informational materials on this topic. Part of our website will be dedicated to this initiative, starting today.

The U.S. Commercial Service of the Embassy will work with closely with U.S. colleges and universities that are interested in offering degree and other educational programs at established Slovak institutions of higher education, as well as exchange programs.

The Fulbright Commission of Slovakia has offered to recruit Senior Specialists whose services at a Slovak institution could be funded by the business community. And the Fulbright Alumni Association has offered its membership in many industries and government offices to this initiative.

Texas International Education Consortium, an association of 32 public universities, has pledged its expertise in helping universities grow to this project.

Let me ask you: does this initiative make sense for your business? Do you think Kosice, Presov and Eastern Slovakia have the potential for rapid growth in IT and other information-based industries that the promoters of the IT Valley believe?

I would be interested now in hearing your views.

Thank you.