NEWS
Prime Minister on a working visit to Moscow
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Alenka Bratušek, met the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, in Moscow and also attended the fourth investment conference dedicated to presenting the investment environment in the Republic of Slovenia and individual investment opportunities under the government's privatisation plan to foreign companies. The Slovenian-Russian investment conference hosted about 60 businesspeople, confirming that economic cooperation between Slovenia and Russia can further be strengthened in the future.
In her opening address at the investment conference, the Slovenian Prime Minister highlighted the main priorities of the Government, i.e. the stabilisation of the banking system and efforts to improve the economy’s competitiveness and state asset management. She stressed that "the Slovenian Government is very serious when designating the privatisation as one of key tools to promote economic recovery", and said that the privatisation is to be carried out through transparent public tenders. Most important in this context is to find strategic partners that will further develop the Slovenian companies and pursue long-term interests. Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek drew attention to trade in goods and services between the two countries exceeding EUR 1.24 billion in 2012, placing Russia as the seventh-largest trading partner of Slovenia. "There are still ample opportunities to strengthen the already good co-operation between our two countries," the Prime Minister added.
As part of her visit, Slovenian Prime Minister Bratušek also met Russian Prime Minister Medvedev. They both agreed that in recent years the two countries have developed very good relations and strong economic cooperation. There is, nevertheless, still ample scope for fostering further cooperation in this area. In this context, the two Prime Ministers attended the signing of several documents, namely on military and technical cooperation, cooperation in fighting illicit drug trafficking, a programme of joint actions in the area of tourism, cooperation in the area of physical education and sports, and on cooperation between the Slovenian Ministry of Economic Development and Technology and the Government of the Yaroslavl Region, Russian Federation. In their talks, the two Prime Ministers also touched upon the South Stream gas pipeline project, which is of strategic significance to Slovenia; for this reason, it is very important that the project complies with the EU legislation. Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek expressed her expectation that an agreement would be reached between Russia, the European Commission and the EU Member States and said that the her meeting with the Russian Prime Minister was the first step towards the agreement that would enable the earliest possible start of the construction of the South Stream pipeline.