Programme of the Ministry of the Economy 2007

There are also plans to amend provisions of the Small Business Act that deal with
the Chamber of Crafts of Slovenia and the deregulation of professions and
activities. We will comprehensively upgrade the Trade Act.
The Directorate for Internal Market will also take part in the privatisation of the
Slovenska industrija jekla steel group, the Nafta Lendava refinery and the Rudnik
cinka in svinca Mežica zinc and lead mine.
The directorate is furthermore dealing with certain issues related to the closure of
mines which require a lot of work and funds if open issues from the past are to be
resolved comprehensively and as soon as possible.
The Directorate for Energy has a broad spectre of work. Its key task is to
participate and contribute, on behalf of the Ministry of Economy, towards greater
investment activity of Slovenian energy companies. This includes investment in
production of electrical energy, power and gas transmission, the distribution of
electrical energy carried out by five distribution companies, and the diversification
of access to energy sources, in particular natural gas. Investment policies are in
the hands of companies, however they do need energy permits for that. It is
essential that energy companies work with the Ministry in fulfilling the objective
of providing reliable and secure energy supplies for Slovenia. The Ministry of the
Economy also wishes to participate in increasing the share of biofuels in Slovenia,
which may be associated with Nafta Lendava.
We are making preparations for the Decree on the method for the implementation
of public service obligation relating to the electricity distribution system. This will
be the final decision separating the distribution system from the transmission
system. According to plans, there will by one transmission system operator and we
are keeping the five distribution companies organised as they are. The relationship
between them will be determined by the Decree and the subsequent contracts
between the transmission system operator and the distribution companies.
The market for households will be successfully opened on 1 July 2007. We are also
continuing with the privatisation related to the reorganisation. Final talks are
underway on the creation of a second energy provider in Slovenia, the so-called
second pillar around GEN energija, and on preparations at the Holding Slovenske
Elektrarne for a capital increase which will lead to consolidation. Preparations are
also afoot for the privatisation of TE-TOL, the subsidiaries of Rudnik Trbovlje
Hrastnik v zapiranju and several other affiliates of energy companies in Slovenia.
The Directorate for Foreign Economic Relations will be the operator of
Slovenia’s preparations for the presidency of the EU and of the presidency itself.
The workload is immense in all areas of work, in particular in trade policy. As the
presiding EU member, Slovenia will represent the European trade policy, which will
be an incredibly demanding task considering the limited human resources at the
Ministry.
We will continue establishing Slovenian business representations abroad. In 2007
we plan to open four more, probably in Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Argentina or Brazil
and in China. We would like to cover a somewhat broader area, taking in potential
markets that Slovenian companies deem as promising but for which we do not
have appropriate infrastructure or information. We would like to place greater
emphasis on Shanghai as an economic centre, as we already have an embassy in
Beijing.
The promotion of foreign direct investment will be constant at the Ministry of the
Economy, its aim being to raise the competitiveness of the Slovenian economy. We
are investing a lot of funds for this purpose, so we are confident that we will
succeed in bringing in foreign direct investment that will increase value-added,
place emphasis on development and employ a competitive workforce. This is the
foreign direct investment that Slovenia wants and needs, so our measures will be
focused accordingly.
This publication outlines the main activities and projects at our Ministry. We will do
our best to implement them fully and successfully in order to achieve the key
objectives of raising competitiveness, productivity and employment, and creating
prosperity for all people of Slovenia.
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