John Lawrenson

This is the European factory of the Korean car manufacturer Kia, just outside the Slovak city of Jilina.

3,700 people work here, including assembly line worker Simona Krneva, 23.

She works on the doors.

She studied business before coming here.

She tells me it's not her dream job, but it has its good points.

Salary's OK?

Euros a month, just over $1,500.

Lower than the average salary in the factory, which Kia tells me is almost twice that.

When Slovakia was part of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, the cars it made were, by Western standards, shoddy, noisy, thirsty and slow.

But after the Velvet Revolution, a non-violent transition of power in 1989, sent its communist rulers packing.

and the Czechs and Slovaks agreed to split into two independent countries.

Volkswagen bought and overhauled the old Czechoslovak carmaker Skoda, and other foreign automobile manufacturers moved in too.

Peugeot Citroën, now Stellantis, Kia, Jaguar Land Rover, and now Volvo.

Peter Prokop is the Czech-German head of GIV, a management consulting firm that advises clients in the automotive sector.

The president and CEO of Kia Europe is a Frenchman called Marc Andriche.

I asked him why Slovakia.

What is happening in Slovakia is also happening all over East Central Europe.

In this part of the EU, low wages...

A tradition of industry and educating to provide manpower for industry, inherited from communist times, mixed with Western and Asian technology and management, is proving a winning combination.

In Jelena, Slovakia, I'm John Lawrenson for Marketplace.