The Slovenian business delegation was visiting Bratislava on Thursday and Friday, and it was accompanying the Foreign Minister, Mr Karl Erjavec, who was visiting Slovakia. 

Minister Erjavec on Thursday evening at the Slovenian Embassy in the centre of Bratislava received members of the business delegation comprised of the representatives of 15 companies: Adria kombi, Datalab, Fersped, Fining, Interservice, Kolektor Etra, Luka Koper, Metrans Adria, Sinergise, Slovenija Trade, Slovenian railways – cargo traffic, TIB Transport and the Pan−Slovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD). Some important points of view and starting points were established during an extensive discussion, among others the necessity to start building a 2nd rail line which is very important from a logistics−transport perspective – not only for Luka Koper, but also for the wider Slovenian and European business environment. Andrej Mertelj, the director of Datalab, presented an exceptional initiative for the establishment of a European competence centre for agriculture and informatics in Slovenia.   

Minister Erjavec, together with the representatives of the Slovenian Ministry for Agriculture and Environment and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Spatial Planning, listened attentively to the initiatives, plans and arguments, and he promised that the Foreign Ministry will provide support for the presented proposals.

The VZMD President, Mr Kristjan Verbič, MSc, was also attending the events in Bratislava in the framework of the endeavours of the two VZMD international business−investment programmes: Invest to Slovenia - investo.si and International Investors` Network - invest-to.net. At the reception and at the bilateral and multilateral meetings, Mr Verbič presented the two programmes which – apart from the possibility of the presentations on the investo.si, and invest-to.net web portals, promotional materials, etc. – also enable the establishment of direct contacts with the representatives of the European Federation of Financial Services Users (EuroFinUse), the World Federation of Investors (WFI), and 57 national associations of shareholders and investors, and also with partner associations: International Knowledge Economy Network (KEN), International Centre for Promotion of Enterprises (ICPE), the European Issuers Association (EuropeanIssuers), European Business Angels Network (EBAN), the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI), International Financial Litigation Network (IFLN), etc.

On Friday the members of the business delegation were attending the Slovenian−Slovakian business forum, which took place at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovakia. Beside the Slovenian Foreign Minister, the assembled audience was in the introduction also addressed by the Secretary at the Slovakian Foreign Ministry, while the representatives of the Slovakian Investment and Trade Development Agency SARIO, the director of Datalab, Mr Andrej Mertelj, and Čedomir Bojanič, the director of the Slovenian Association of Port Logistics Providers, also presented Slovakian and Slovenian business environment in the field of information−communication technologies and logistics. The presentations were followed by two separate round−table discussions on the themes of logistics and information technology. The business forum ended with bilateral talks between Slovenian and Slovakian companies, and it was concluded by a mutual press conference of the Slovenian Foreign Minister Mr
Erjavec and the Slovakian Foreign Minister, Miroslav Lajčák.  

Otherwise Mr Verbič was attending the Bratislava conference in the framework of an intensive tour of the investo.si in invest-to.net programmes, and in the following days he will also be attending »India-Central Europe Business Forum«which will take place in New Delhi, and afterwards Mr Verbič will be present at the International Conference of the European Federation of Financial Services Users (EuroFinUse) entitled »Better Finance Manifesto« (VIDEO ANNOUNCEMENT of VZMD.tv). It is his second longer tour this year, after the one in February in the framework of which he actively participated at the 5th Congress of the Spanish Association of Minority Shareholders (AEMEC), International Investors' Conference at the Madrid Stock Exchange, and at the West African Business Investment Forum Africallia 2014, which took place in the capital of Burkina Faso Ouagadougou.

After last year's successful presentations of companies, institutions and investment projects in Astana, Almaty, Baku, Brussels, Buffalo, Bucharest, Cape Town, Dubai, Vienna, Kiev, Ljubljana, Madrid, Minsk, Moscow, New Delhi, Tokyo, Toronto and Zagreb, VZMD is planning this year to be actively present and to carry out presentations on five different continents!

VZMD kindly invites those wishing to secure their business interest by taking part in their events and activities to contact the VZMD investo.si programme coordinator by phone 031 770 771, or e-mail tratar@investo.si.