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Because of its size and history within Yugoslavia, Slovenia has certain peculiarities that reflect in the summarising of the Western Balkans business culture, as well as in the strong involvement in the international business environment. In this business environment, foreign investment can be an important economic source, both because of direct capital increase as well as other positive economic effects related to the transfer of technology, knowledge and market expansion.

When deciding about investing capital abroad, Kolektor took into account a number of factors related to the size of the market, the available, qualified and academically educated workforce, the stability of fiscal policy, political and social security, and growth of the economic environment, to ensure an increase in the invested capital on the level of input costs, work, material, etc., just to name a few key factors. However, this is one of the basic conditions for a positive investment climate and the attitude towards foreign investors.

On the other hand, this is a similar situation in the eyes of foreign investors who come to Slovenia. Except that they first inspect the investment climate for foreign capital. If it is positive, and I believe that in Slovenia it is, the foreign investor begins analysing the Slovenian business environment.

Here, the key role is not played only by labour costs but also by all of the previously listed factors. I dare say that Slovenia has a specialised and academically educated labour force, while legal security of employees is comparable to the legal security of employees in Germany, Austria, France, etc.

We have excellent conditions for research and development, also in conjunction with knowledge institutes. We are a dynamic society that adapts to changes and all of these advantages are very important for the effectiveness of the capital invested by a foreign (or domestic) investor. Slovenia has well organised infrastructure and it is a politically stable society, which is an additional advantage. This was also confirmed by German investors in Slovenia, and today we have more than 300 who would make investments in Slovenia again.

In Slovenia we always wonder what can we improve and there is always something. For example:

- Comparable taxation of capital and labour in relation to other EU countries, especially to those that are the most competitive with Slovenia: Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland.
- Eliminate bureaucratic obstacles in investment, especially in the construction sector.
- Reduce or adapt public administration costs so their share in GDP is comparable with other EU countries.
- Deregulation of the country and completion of the privatisation process, ensuring successful corporate governance for state-owned companies.
- Direct the economic environment even more toward sustainable development of the economy.
- Encourage the banking system to finance investment projects in assets that immediately bring cash flow.

We often hear about corruption in our environment. I am not saying that there is none, but I can say that Slovenia does not deviate from other EU countries. We are sufficiently critical and in assessing the business environment we tend to emphasise the disadvantages instead of the advantages.

We do not know if this is a feature of a small nation, but the fact is that Slovenia is a nation with its own language and a history of more than 1,200 years, we are comparable and we can be proud also compared to larger nations. The United States, for example, are a society with a population that emigrated from Europe, South America, Asia and Africa and a history of only a few hundred years.