NEWS
PM at Investment Conference U.S. - Slovenia Business Bridge
Slovenian Prime Minister, Alenka Bratušek, attended the business dinner in the framework of the Investment and Development Conference U.S. – Slovenia Business Bridge. In her opening address she stressed the importance of good relationships between the Republic of Slovenia and the United States of America, which positively influence foreign direct investments and economic growth.
In her speech, the Prime Minister touched upon the current situation in Slovenia and pointed out priority tasks of the Slovenian Government aimed at the improvement of the economic conditions in the country. She said: "The last two decades have been very good, both in political and economic sense. Soon after our independence we established functioning institutions and blooming economy, while our GDP per capita amounted to 91 per cent of the European Union average in 2008. We joined elite international clubs: the European Union, NATO, OECD and the Eurogroup. We could say that we have become a victim of our own success. Because of our achievements we overlooked our problems when it was time to resolve them; instead, we swept them under the carpet hoping they would remain there."
The Prime Minister said that the economic crisis had caught us unprepared and that we had postponed the much needed reforms for too long. The present Government, however, is well aware of the problems encountered by the state and is adopting measures for their resolution. Among the priorities, the Prime Minister stressed the stabilisation of the banking sector, the consolidation of public finance, a new boost to and the competitiveness of the economy. In her opinion, an important factor in the boost of the economy is foreign direct investment that should be further stimulated. The Prime Minister closed her address by underlining that Slovenia and the United States of America share the same values and convictions, which enables a good cooperation in the economic and political fields. "The excellent relationships between the two countries will logically result in a closer integration and cooperation," stressed the Prime Minister.