Komparatívne a konkurenčné výhody Slovenska v globálnom obchodnom prostredí
SLOVAK COMPARATIVE AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES UNDER GLOBAL TRADE ENVIRONMENT

Summary/Abstract: Slovak foreign trade deficit pace is being closely associated with the development of its macroeconomic indicators – economic growth, structure of aggregate demand, and unemployment rate. Persistent deterioration of Slovak trade course is said to be the result of lower effectiveness of the hitherto economy restructuralisation. Its running is so far dedicated to keeping the Slovak trade competitiveness by way of cost competition ex-ploitation (low wages, simple less sophisticated products). There is also an insufficient rate of foreign investment as improving the industry restructuralisation, putting up the productivity and profitability of sophisticated production. An appreciable part is still being specialised in simpler steps of production processes as connected with intensive exporting and importing activities. Slovak export commodity structure is remarkable for its low values added and increased importing requirements being reflected in the dete-rioration of terms of trade and finally trades balance. Our production structure is still raw and material abundant. The low effectiveness of supply side of our economy has its re-flection also in the proexporting capabilities.Slovak business entities are able due to the low flexibility and quality of sub delivery system and insufficient technological basis of our production to cope with their increased exporting demands mainly with enhancing importing.There are different approaches to the definition of competitive advantage. Very often it is considered to be a certain combination of comparative advantages and prevailing market failures. Competitiveness of a country can be perceived as an ability to produce and sell products on the world market with the aim to achieve a certain level of return of factors of production. Those are finally being compared with possible benefits earned at exploitation of factors of production to alternative activities. The present research of comparative and competitive advantages is based upon the usage of statistical methods for assessing the revealed comparative advantages. Successful country's position under the severe competition depends on the effectiveness of its trading activities towards the rest of the world. Authors of the complex index of revealed competitive advantages are Vollrath and Vo, while Balassa developed the index of revealed comparative advantages. The present theory of competitiveness is based on the application of a great variety of indices, e. g. DRC – Domestic Resource Costs, NSP – Net Social Profitability, or Michaely index and CTB – Contribution to the Trade Balance.This article highlights the diagnosis of selected commodity structures being observed by RCA, CTB and Michaely indices with a corresponding theoretical inquiry into the present state of the theory of competitiveness. However, we put our attention just for selected postulates from their vast hierarchy reflecting the topic most complex.

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