Competitiveness of the Slovak Republic within V4 countries in consideration of development of business environment and innovation strategy of business entities

Foreign trade represents the import of those commodities which in the country fail to grow because of the climate or cannot be produced for various different reasons. On the other hand, imported foreign commodities are competition in domestic market. The effort of each country is to achieve a positive trade balance. In this respect, it is very essential to follow the export and import of foreign trade. The aim of the submitted paper is competitiveness of the Slovak Republic within V4 countries in consideration of development of business environment and innovation strategy of business entities. Reaching this aim is supported by following partial aims: Slovak Republic as part of the V4, Global index of competitiveness of V4, Agrarian Trade of V4, Agrarian Trade of the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic, Agrarian Trade of the Slovak Republic and Hungary, Agrarian Trade of the Slovak Republic and Poland. Concerning the foreign trade, based on the long term development, the major trade partners of the Slovak Republic are the EU member states including V4, the Russian Federation, China and USA. The Czech Republic has the largest share in Slovak export and import of all V4 countries. The estimated volume of foreign trade in 2020 will reach 184% value in comparison with year 2012, in real terms, 225 billion EUR in prices of year 2012- from which exports will take 124 billion EUR and imports 101 billion EUR. This corresponds to an average annual growth of export by 8.8% and import by 6.9%. The positive balance of foreign trade will increase from 3.6 billion EUR in 2012 to 23 billion EUR in 2020. When expected level of GDP is 90 billion EUR, the openness of the Slovak economy will grow at 250%.