Slovakia is located in Central Europe, south of the Czech Republic and Poland. It is around twice the size of New Hampshire. The climate is temperate with moderately warm summers and cold, cloudy, humid winters. The terrain is rugged mountains in the central and northern part with lowlands in the south. Natural resources include brown coal and lignite, some iron ore,copper and manganese ore, salt, and arable land.

Slovakia has mastered much of the difficult transition from a centrally planned economy to a modern market economy. The Dzurinda government made excellent progress in 2001-02 in macroeconomic stabilization and structural reform. Major privatizations are nearly complete, the banking sector is almost completely in foreign hands, and foreign investment has picked up. Slovakia's economy exceeded expectations in 2001-02, despite the general European slowdown. Unemployment, at 17.2% remains as the country's key economic issue. The government faces other strong challenges, especially the cutting of budget and current account deficits and the prevention of a revival of inflation. Slovakia's gross domestic product (GDP) is comprised of: agriculture (5%), industry (34%), and services (61%).