Slovenia has been increasing investment in infrastructure, but much remains to be done, especially in rail infrastructure, which, neglected for decades, poses a bottleneck, heard a forum hosted by the German-Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and Industry which also noted good cooperation between the two countries.

"Investment in roads and railways is at record levels. In particular, there is a lot of investment in rail infrastructure, which has been neglected so far," said Andrej Rajh, state secretary at the Slovenian Infrastructure Ministry.

The major one is the construction of the new railway between Koper and Divača, which will increase throughput and reduce travel times to and from Slovenia's sole maritime port, which is also used by many German companies. "The travel time on this section will be reduced from 110 to 30 minutes and the throughput capacity will be increased from 94 to 212 trains," Rajh said.

He also noted the ongoing construction of the second rail track between Šentilj on the border with Austria and Maribor and the second tube of the Karavanke road tunnel. The state has also been subsidising air transport, but is yet to reach the targets set.

Slovenia makes a key part of the European transport corridors, which is also important for Germany and German companies. Therefore, there are several initiatives for further joint cooperation in the field, Rajh said.

Dagmar von Bohnstein, the president of the German-Slovenian Chamber, agreed. She noted that the conference coincides with European Mobility Week, a series of events where answers to challenges in transport are being sought and new trends looked at. But the question is also how the EU will finance infrastructure and transport development to stimulate further development.

Julia Neblich, deputy chief of mission at the German embassy to Slovenia, noted the paramount importance of infrastructure in the face of various challenges. EU countries will only develop if infrastructure also develops. Slovenia and Germany are working closely together in this area, she said.

The forum also heard a presentation by Sven Altenburg from the analytics firm Prognos on future infrastructure and mobility. These bring many opportunities, but also high costs and unknowns, especially when it comes to alternatives to today's internal combustion engines. "Nevertheless, it is clear that these engines do not have much of a future, given the EU's commitment to going green," he said.

One of the panel debates heard road, maritime and air transport officials discuss whether Slovenia is prepared for the needs of the future.

Nevenka Kržan, CEO of port manager Luka Koper, assured the participants that the Koper port was ready for new challenges. "Last year, we adopted a strategy setting out €800 million in investment, the largest of which is the extension of Pier I, which will increase container handling capacity. This will also allow us to make full use of the higher capacity Koper-Divača track," she said.

Janez Krašnja, head of airport services at Fraport Slovenia, said that traffic at Ljubljana airport was increasing and nearing the pre-pandemic levels, while Aleš Mihelič, an advisor to the management of Slovenian Railways, noted the importance of new investments in the railways.

"We have known for several years that the transport of goods and passengers by rail will increase, but we have not acted on infrastructure. It has been neglected, and much more needs to be done to increase capacity to cope with the demands," he said.

Aleš Napast, managing director at Siemens Mobility, and Miha Trunkelj, head of business development and energy transition at IMP Promont, presented the energy of the future in rail transport, which includes batteries and hydrogen. The latter in particular involves many unknowns about the financing of production, distribution and storage, which will also require a political decision at EU level.