The old port of Bratislava along the banks of the Danube is to be developed by the Irish company, Ballymore Properties Ltd. The President, Mrs McAleese, was shown a model of the scheme yesterday by the mayor of the city, Mr Andrej Durkovsky. Renagh Holohan reports from Bratislava.
The 200,000 sq m joint-venture development, comprising commercial, residential, retail and leisure facilities, will cost €165 million over five years, with the first phase of investment totalling €65 million. Work is due to start next spring on the venture, which will be one of the biggest foreign projects in Slovakia.
As Mr Durkovsky showed the President the model of the Pribinova Riverfront project, Ballymore's chief executive, Mr Seán Mulryan, director Mr Peter Bacon, and one of the architects involved in the project, Mr Seán O'Laoire, explained the finer points.
Enterprise Ireland's Mr Jim Mongey said he would work with Ballymore to include Irish suppliers of services and products in the project.
Mr Mulryan, who has been engaged in developments in Prague, said the Pribinova presented an exceptional development opportunity. Mrs McAleese remarked that the project would turn the city towards the river and give it a new vista.
Earlier, on the final day of her two-day State visit to Slovakia, the President was presented with the Gold Medal of Comenius University. In her address she said that Ireland considered the coming accession of 10 new EU member-states as one of the most positive developments since the foundation of the EEC in 1957.
"It puts the dark days of the last century firmly behind us and confirms the underlying dynamism and destiny of the European Union," she said.
"We are particularly fortunate that our capital city, Dublin, will be centre-stage on Accession Day, May 1st next year, as Ireland will hold the Union presidency at that time.
"It is there that old friends will be welcomed as new colleagues. We know how good membership has been for Ireland and we believe that others are entitled to the same opportunities that were given to us."
The worries Ireland had on joining the EU - about the open market, about vulnerability as a small nation, and the potential threat to a hard-won independence and jealously guarded identity - were now seen in a new light.
Mrs McAleese continued: "We punch above our weight in Europe, and our cultural identity has never been stronger. We are comfortably Irish, comfortably European. We started with 60 per cent of the European average income and today we are at 130 per cent.
"No magic formula transformed us overnight. In fact our transformation took two decades, a lot of pain and a lot of hard work."
The President and Dr Martin McAleese returned to Dublin yesterday afternoon.