BERLIN — Samsung and Sony are among the companies expanding manufacturing operations in Slovakia as the country prepares to adopt the euro currency in 2009.

Samsung's 320 million euro ($496M) expansion at its LCD and plasma TV factory, in Trnava, near Bratislava, is expected to create 1,400 new jobs. The investment will increase capacity at the plant to 12 million flat screen TVs per year by 2012, up from the initial 10 million target it had set.

Suppliers are planning to set up around the factory in 2008, added Jozef Marusik, project manager at SARIO, Slovakia's Trade and Investment Agency.

Sony is investing 73 million euro ($113M) to expand its LCD factory in the city of Nitra. The expansion is expected to add 1500 new jobs. By the end of 2008, the factory will have a production capacity of 3 million LCD TV sets per year and around 3,000 employees, according to the company.

Electronics accounted for 19 percent of Slovakia's total number of investment projects in 2007, up from 12 percent in 2006.

The Slovak economy is in transition and the government is trying to attract more higher value-added industries and services, Marusik said.

There are strong expectations that Slovakia will adopt the euro currency in 2009. The National Bank of Slovakia believes euro adoption will increase FDI because investors will feel more comfortable with the currency's stability. However, wage and price increases have traditionally accelerated in countries adopting the euro.

Slovakia's wages rose about 4 percent last year as GDP shot up 10.4 percent, according to the Slovak Statistical Office. But Slovakia still has the lowest wages of neighboring countries. The average annual nominal wage was 7464 euros annually ($11,570) in 2007, which is roughly 15-20% lower than in Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.

The highest wages in New Europe are in Slovenia, where an electrical engineer is estimated to earn annually 24,000 euro ($37,200), according to Invest in Slovenia.