On June 9, 2006, the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic Mikulas Dzurinda visited Kia Motors Slovakia (Kia Slovakia s. r. o.). He was accompanied by the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance Ivan Miklos, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Economy Jirko Malcharek and the Mayor of Zilina City Jan Slota. They visited the company at the time of trial production run. During the trial period, all production technologies, equipment and employees will be synchronized to get prepared for the mass production in late 2006.
After welcoming the government’s representatives by the Kia Slovakia s. r. o. employees in front of the press shop, all guests together with the company management went on the plant tour. Journalists from the Slovak media followed on their heels as well. They were also invited to the event and could see the production premises of the plant for the very first time. During the plant tour, they viewed production technologies at the press, body and assembly shops with brief explanation by Kia Slovakia s. r. o. staff. In the assembly shop, the Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda together with the Kia Slovakia s. r. o. President In-Kyu Bae took a short drive in an all-new model, code-named ED, whose production will start at the end of this year.
“I am entirely satisfied that we have built a plant with Slovak employees. Therefore we are proud of them. I am sure that the best work force is in Slovakia because Slovaks are willing to learn new skills,” stated In-Kyu Bae for the media. During the speech, Mikulas Dzurinda thanked those who participated in the project and pointed out that Kia Motors will create a total of 10,000 jobs directly, which is the most important fact related to this investment. He was very pleased that the project has been developing according to schedule and emphasized that the importance of our company is tremendous not only for the Slovak economy and people working here, but also for the entire country.
