Slovenia's ambassador to Germany believes trade could exceed EUR 11bn for the first time ever once the figure for services exchange is added in June.

Slovenia was one of the few EU member states creating a surplus in its trade with Germany. The figure amounted to just over half a billion euros - Slovenia exported EUR 4.95bn worth of goods and imported EUR 4.42bn.

The data from the German statistics office Destatis is slightly different; trade of goods amounted to EUR 9.83bn, with exports from Slovenia reaching EUR 5.26bn and imports at EUR 4.57bn.

While Germany has been Slovenia's top trade partner for years, Slovenia was Germany's 38th biggest partner last year.

Ambassador Marta Kos Marko told the STA that those involved in economic diplomacy were very proud of the results.

She said that the embassy devised a plan when she took over with a special focus on the provinces of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, North-Rhine Westpfalia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt.

Statistics show that 63% of goods trade between Slovenia and Germany was accounted for by only three provinces.

The exchange of goods with Baden-Württemberg amounted to nearly EUR 2.5bn in 2015, up by almost 9% over the year before. North-Rhine Westpfalia is in second place, accounting for EUR 1.94bn in goods trade, which was 10.5% more than in 2014. Bavaria is in third place with EUR 1.75bn, up 6% year-on-year.

The embassy focused last year on North-Rhine Westphalia. A German-Slovenian business club was inaugurated there and a Slovenian language course has been introduced to one of the province's universities.

What is more, Slovenia is in the final stages of appointing an honorary consul in this province. Moreover, two new plane routes are also to be launched shortly. Adria Airways will fly between Ljubljana and Cologne, while Express Airways will link Maribor and Düsseldorf.

Kos Marko is also very happy with German investments in Slovenia. The biggest ones were Fraport's acquisition of Aerodrom Ljubljana, Mahle's takeover of Letrika and the ongoing acquisition of Adria Airways by 4K Investments.