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Prime Minister Borut Pahor attends the conference Innovative Slovenia

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, today attended the conference Innovative Slovenia, at which he gave an opening address. The conference, at which the participants tried to answer the question of what to do for innovative Slovenia, was also attended by the Director of the OECD’s Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry, Andrew W. Wyckoff.

 

Premier Borut Pahor in direktor Direktorata za znanost, tehnologijo in industrijo pri OECD Andrew W. Wyckoff (levo) na konferenci Inovativna Slovenija (foto: Matej Leskovšek/STA)

  

In his address, Mr Pahor emphasised that a certain imbalance was created in the world, with China and India that were also experiencing a high level of economic growth, being in the forefront. On the other hand, Europe has been experiencing difficulties and facing a slow recovery after a severe economic crisis. In this context, Prime Minister Pahor highlighted that the lagging behind the developed countries had to be reduced and that “one of the elements is to provide a much better innovative environment than the existing one”. Furthermore, the Prime Minister said that Slovenia “strengthened the element of solidarity in the past year. This year, its task is to reinforce the elements of competitiveness, one of them being also the innovative environment, if these social cohesion elements are to be sustainable.” The Government’s aim is “to make Slovenia, insofar as the EU rules permit it, a fiscal, business and cultural space attracting all those who want to test their ideas,” explained Mr Pahor, adding that we need to outline a clear plan of necessary steps that would enable Slovenia to begin “with a programme of technological, innovation renaissance.“