BRATISLAVA (SITA) - Slovak Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar wants to heal Slovak banks` problems with mergers of the General Credit Bank (VUB), the Slovak Savings Bank (SLSP), the Investment and Development Bank (IRB), and the Slovak Insurance Company (SP). As the prime minister stressed at the meeting "Results of Slovak Industry and Its Prospects at the Turn of the 3rd Millenium" on Tuesday, the above financial institutions are still losing their positions on Slovakia`s banking market, and because the protectionist attitude of the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) towards these banks only preserves their current position. Mečiar pointed out that the situation on the banking market has called for a basic reconstruction since 1993. He attributed the problems of Slovakia`s four biggest banks to their internal structure and irresponsible management decisions. Mečiar stated that the government wants to enable better access to loans for businessmen also through negotiations with banks on the reduction of interest rates. Mečiar announced that the banks promised to individually decrease interest rates for solvent companies

while total interest rates have been lowering already for three months. The priority of economic development after 1998 will be investments in infrastructure, with 10 billion SKK swallowed up by highway construction at a minimum. Moreover, support for rail and air transport will considerably increase, according to Mečiar. Housing construction will be subsidized by 5 billion SKK annually. Mečiar said that substantial changes in the Slovak economy of the 90s caused the fall of some branches, for example, electrical engineering, armament and machine engineering industries. It is only because of the deep social feeling of Slovak entrepreneurs that the unemployment rate did not develop to such extent as it could.