Slovenia, Ljubljana, 9 December 2005: Prime Minister of the RS Janez Janša on the Government's First Year in Office at the press conference commenting on the work accomplished (photo KVP)

In his opinion, the general situation in Slovenia at the end of the first quarter of the Government's mandate is stable and marked by a trend of improvement in the average standard of living. He explained that a number of rules regarding the relationship between citizens and the state have been simplified, and that public administration services have become less costly in certain fields during this time. In spite of the alarming rise in oil prices this year, through mutual coordination the Government and the Bank of Slovenia managed to reduce the inflation rate even further than announced at the beginning of the year, so that according to the latest data we practically already fulfil the final condition for adopting the euro, pointed out the PM. “This year Slovenia will achieve the forecast economic growth. According to data for the last quarter, growth reached 3.7% at mid-year, while at the end of the year, economic growth will approach 4%, which can be considered a sound result in comparison with EU Member States with a similar level of development. Real gross income growth in September will also be approximately 4% – the data for the first nine months showed 3.9% – however, in comparison with last year’s 2% growth this means that this year’s real gross income growth in Slovenia is twice as high as last year’s,“ said the PM, adding that purchasing power and the general standard of living had actually improved this year. “Moreover, the Government fulfilled its promise to pensioners last year to change the system so that pensions could be harmonised with the growth of income. This has brought about an improved standard of living for pensioners as well as the active population so that they both have an equal outlook. According to recent data, the unemployment rate this year decreased by 0.2% in comparison to last year’s all-year-round rate,“ explained the PM.

 

The most important strategic document adopted this year was the Strategy of Development of Slovenia, asserted the PM, who continued by saying that with this document Slovenia had prepared itself in a timely fashion for the changes now faced by the entire EU. On the basis of the adopted developmental strategy, the government determined the framework for economic and social reforms aiming to increase Slovenia’s prosperity and established a special governmental service for the coordination of strategy measures, noted the PM and added that the Government, while preparing the strategy, and later, when preparing the framework, also produced a number of legislative proposals, some of which had already been adopted; moreover, the Government also adopted many measures fashioned according to the goals of Slovenia's development strategy. “We thus prepared a Companies Bill, which is already in parliamentary procedure; we also established a service portal for business entities (e-VEM, a one-stop-shop system) that allows registration of a company at a single location or entry point so that citizens can avoid numerous visits to different offices. Development funds available to the entrepreneurial sector have been doubled this year. Tax relief to promote investments into research and development has been introduced, and we have improved the system of effectively drawing on financial resources from European funds. This September, the data from Brussels showed that Slovenia was at the tail end in the group of the new Member States, while today’s data demonstrate it has moved up to third place in this respect, so we are now slightly behind Estonia and Latvia, and all other new Member States are considerably behind us now. By the end of the year this data will be further improved, because we have over EUR 15 million of approved funds already available for some programmes,“ explained the PM. He proceeded by citing additional information to the effect that the tax legislation adopted last year was amended this year, and that it would be considerably friendlier to taxpayers in comparison with the one valid during the previous government's mandate. Next year, the payroll tax will also be reduced – the pertinent legislation has been adopted already, and starting from January 2006 this tax will be 20% lower. “We have also introduced the system by which the majority of enterprises do not pay the VAT at the time of issuing an invoice but only when they receive payment; this had been demanded by the Slovenian entrepreneurial sector over many years. The budget for the next budgetary period was prepared last year and promptly submitted to the National Assembly within statutory deadlines, so it appears that it will be adopted on time as well. In the current year we have reduced notary tariffs considerably, regulated the salary system in the public sector, including the salaries of high officials and directors that were an unsolvable problem during the previous six years, and we are in the process of establishing a guarantee system to be implemented next year for agricultural production, to protect it from the consequences of natural disasters,” the PM explained. He continued by saying that this year we fulfilled the obligations ensuing from the EU Directive on waste water treatment, the latter being a highly important issue in the environmental protection domain.“ This year, an additional 450,000 population units for treated waste water were set up, and this has certainly improved the quality of living in Slovenia. We have adopted a new act on regional development, raised the limit on reasonable municipal financing and therefore decreased the difficulties encountered by the majority of municipalities in Slovenia. This year, we also opened up the possibilities for establishing new and better quality higher education institutions and universities – some have already been established as the result of these new rules – and we have initiated reform of higher education programmes while successfully drawing on the EU funds for this purpose. Furthermore, we have adopted a number of measures to raise the quality of primary school instruction and to lessen the burden on pupils at this level that results from the excessive rigidity of the system. We have reduced the waiting time in health care and adopted the act on health insurance equalisation fund schemes, which will at least partially regulate the situation in this sector. After twenty years of evasion on the part of previous governments, an act on the registration of homosexual partnerships has finally been adopted. For the first time in many years, we have succeeded in increasing funds for culture, through the revised budget; we adopted the RTV Slovenia Act, which will facilitate an effective reorganisation of this institution according to European standards. We opened the motorway connection across Trojane, which saves a substantial amount of time for thousands of citizens every day. Numerous administrative obstacles have been removed, local competence for a number of matters dealt with at local administrative counters has been abolished, and certifications have been simplified and made cheaper. The privilege of high officials and a considerable part of the state administration staff to have 100% compensation for the initial thirty days of sick leave has also been abolished,“ said the PM and emphasised that for the first time since the existence of independent Slovenia, the number of employees in the civilian part of the public administration would actually be lower at the end of this year than it was at the beginning. This year, public tendering procedures were carried out for personal documents and passports, previously done on the basis of a decree on classified orders or confidential data, which will greatly reduce the prices of certain products or services in this area. Slovenia's international situation is better and more solid now than ever before. Slovenia successfully presided over the OSCE this year and received a uniformly positive mark from the Member States on this. Slovenia was also elected to hold the EU presidency in the first half of 2008 as the first new EU Member State. This year we also set up the necessary infrastructure needed for the effective preparation of this presidency – and this will be a demanding challenge for us. This year, Slovenia also noticeably increased its presence in peace forces and gained a reputation as a reliable partner,” concluded the PM.