President of the Republic of Slovenia on encouraging foreign investments in Slovenia

Bled, 21.10.2010  |  press release

The President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Danilo Türk, attended the FDI Summit 2010 devoted to the issue of foreign investments in Slovenia and the region.

In his address, President Türk highlighted that the environment in Slovenia, also for historical reasons, is relatively conservative regarding direct foreign investments. He recalled that over a period of several decades, Slovenia was a part of an economic system that was based upon the principle of import substitution, with no substantial involvement of direct foreign investments. Since gaining independence, Slovenia has chosen a gradual approach, which has contributed to the preservation of a rather conservative mentality and which still has an impact on our economic and political thinking.

President Türk went on to define some key tasks of Slovenia's development for the future. He emphasised that Slovenia should more specifically define its national interests and the areas in which it wishes to encourage direct foreign investments.

He also pointed out the need to improve corporate governance and the quality of public administration. In addition to the aforementioned, Slovenia should also improve project development capacity, in which it should learn from past experience, ensure well-balanced local and foreign contents of investments and follow the example of successful past projects in production industries, banking and services, said the President.