Dubai-based secure printing specialist RKN Global has scrapped plans for an 89 million euro ($98 million) factory in Slovakia, blaming hostility from the Slovak opposition and media, as well as increased uncertainty after Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

The company said the factory, which was to have manufactured secure ID and e-cards, would have created more than 1,200 jobs in Banska Bystrica, a central Slovak region where unemployment is nearly 14 per cent, against the 9.5 per cent national average.

An agreement had been signed in February by RKN Global Europe general manger Maryam Lindsbrová and the Prime Minister Robert Fico for the setting up of the facility.

The announcement on the investment plans was made two weeks before the March general election that gave leftist Prime Minister Robert Fico a third term in office.

"The current turbulent political atmosphere in Slovakia and in the European Union has made it imprudent for RKN Global to continue its project to build a security printing plant in Banska Bystrica," chief executive and former Interpol chief Ronald Noble said in a statement dated June 24.

The company also said that media attacks on itself and its industrial partners from Ukraine have damaged its plans.-Reuters