NEWS

Prime Minister Borut Pahor attends the conference on a Slovenian logistic holding

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, today attended the 2nd conference on the establishment of a Slovenian logistic holding held at Brdo pri Kranju. The conference was also attended by Minister of Transport Dr Patrick Vlačič, Minister of Finance Dr Franc Križanič, and Dr Hartmut Mehdorn. In his opening address, Prime Minister Pahor said that the Slovenian Railways were among the major problems that had to be solved. “Together with all the stakeholders participating in the talks, we gradually but decisively started to resolve the problems, with the outcome that the business results in 2010 turned out better than expected and the railways company is no longer under the threat of going bankrupt,” pointed out the Prime Minister. He added that a dilemma that still remains to be solved is associated with a logistic holding. The idea is not new, said the Prime Minister, but nevertheless, it has been adjusted to new conditions in the global world. Rather than trying to enforce the idea, the Government would like to convince the sceptics by means of arguments that this would be a good move for the Slovenian logistic sector.

   

Afterwards, economist Janez Šušteršič outlined the economic aspects of the integration of Slovenian Railways, the Port of Koper and Intereuropa and pointed out that the decision regarding the holding should be well considered and made as soon as possible. He believes that there are three key issues that should be resolved, i.e. how to ensure competitiveness in the case that the holding becomes a reality, how to convince company managements to join the project, and how to regulate relations between the companies integrated in a holding. “I believe that these issues can be resolved positively, in which case the project has realistic outlooks," was convinced Šušteršič. The legal issues entailed by the idea on the formation of a Slovenian logistic holding were addressed by lawyer Bojan Bugarič. He finds the questions relating to the legal status of the regulatory body and the concession of Luka Koper particularly pressing. As regards the concession, he believes that integration of a company with concession into a holding does not imply termination of the concession, since the law allows for a variety of amendments to concession.

  

Conference participants unanimously agree that all the materials prepared require a thorough study, and only when this is done their views and positions can be confronted and reconsidered again.