NEWS
Prime Minister Borut Pahor attends the Slovenian-Slovakian economic forum
The Prime Ministers of Slovenia and Slovakia, Borut Pahor and Iveta Radičová, this afternoon also attended the meeting of businessmen of the two countries, where they addressed the convention. According to Mr Pahor, there are no outstanding political issues between Slovenia and Slovakia, and economic cooperation between the two countries is growing. In the first quarter of this year, the trade in goods between the two countries rose by one-fourth. In this context, the Slovenian Prime Minister also emphasised the importance of the Port of Koper as the “main hub for transshipment of goods”. In the first quarter of this year, the transshipment of goods bound for and originating from Slovakia through the Port of Koper increased by 24%, and the transshipment of containers by 58%. This points to the great significance of cooperation between the two countries.” Prime Minister Pahor also touched upon the state of Slovenia’s and Slovakia’s economies and commended Slovakia on its success in achieving economic growth that exceeds that of Slovenia. In his words, the Slovenian government’s efforts will be focused this year on strengthening the trends of GDP growth and keeping inflation down at a controllable level.
According to the Slovakian Prime Minister, Slovakia found the fact that her country is often confounded with Slovenia quite useful on her country’s accession to the EU. In this context, she mentioned that Slovenia achieved 74% of the average EU GDP as early as 1995 while Slovakia hardly achieved 48% and caught up with Slovenia only in 2009 or 2010. She added that, in this respect, her country faced a new challenge since it still lagged behind Slovenia.
At the end both statesmen also spoke about reforms to be implemented by individual countries after the end of the economic crisis. Prime Minister Pahor mentioned pension reform by saying that this reform may represent a significant turning point in Slovenia’s economic development. On this occasion, he thanked his Slovakian counterpart for her support by adding that, if the proposed pension reform act were adopted, it could signal that, when it comes to Slovenia’s economic advancement, everything is possible. The Slovakian Prime Minister mentioned her government’s austerity measures, a strong anti-corruption programme and measures aimed at improving the operation of small and medium-sized enterprises.