Slovakia: \We should have used offset earlier...but won't use it to save ailing companies\"
Slovakia’s Defence Minister Jaroslav Baška has told an offset conference in Bratislava that he regrets his country’s previous failure to demand offsets. The practice ensures that resources are recovered allowing the country to “regain the originally invested value” he noted...
Ulf Hammarstrom, the European Defence Agency’s (EDA) Director for Defence Industry and Markets, told conference delegates in Bratislava that the debate today is not about the future existence of offsets; it is about using offsets in a more intelligent way. Europe needs a more coherent defence policy and a more coherent defence industrial policy, “and we can’t afford the fragmentation that we have.”
The acquisition of the MOKYS mobile communication system from BAE Systems has been the largest military tender ever given by the Slovakian government to a private company. The estimated value is nearly SKK 7,500m ($360m) and should be implemented within nine years. The offsets comprise 30 percent direct and 70 percent indirect...
Beijing is using Russian technology to boost arms exports on a global scale, while Moscow's efforts to control the Chinese arms market through technology transfers have proved futile. Under a 1996 contract, Beijing received Russian technology for assembling Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker fighters, but subsequently violated the contract, mastered production of the Su-27's J-11 equivalents, and started exporting them to developing countries, according to Russia’s Nezavisimaya Gazeta...