Until the late 1990s, Bratislava was grey and provincial, a place that no one had heard of and few wanted to visit. But with the removal from power in 1998 of Vladimir Meciar and his authoritarian government, Slovakia was readmitted to the club of Western-leaning democracies in Central Europe, ultimately gaining membership in both NATO and the EU in 2004. Since that time the economy has taken off, with GDP growth in the third quarter of 2005 reaching 6.2 percent, the fastest in the region. Aggressive foreign investment incentives have landed some big fish, such as the new PSA Peugeot-Citroen and KIA Hyundai auto plants, which, together with the existing VW plant, will make Slovakia the largest per-capita producer of cars in the world when they come fully on line in 2007 and 2008. But it hasn’t been all big fish – Slovakia’s bold economic reforms to the health care, pension, education and tax systems have received rave reviews, and the 19 percent flat tax in particular has drawn foreign small and medium-sized companies like bears to honey. For Bratislava, this has meant not only mushrooming factories and plants, but – most visibly – an explosion in real estate construction. The city’s stock of office space is expected to double during the 2002 to 2006 period, with nine major projects coming on line in 2005 and 2006 alone. Residential construction has also taken off with the arrival of 4 percent mortgage financing; the result of all the investment is a city that seems to change its face every year. Massive new retail and residential projects are going up on both sides of the Danube River, extending the city core both east and west, and finally giving visitors an entertainment and dining alternative to the postage-stamp sized Old Town. As might be expected, the boom that Bratislava is experiencing is causing some grumbling in the regions, where unemployment remains over 20 percent. But those with the good fortune to live in Bratislava or to visit it find themselves caught up by the pace of life in the city, and forgetful of the fact that until a few years ago, the outlook was pretty bleak for the Slovak capital. That’s the way it goes these days in the New Europe, whose low taxes and can-do approach to business and work are causing angst and gloom in economically moribund Old Europe.