Chairman of Yaskawa Europe and vice-chair of Yaskawa Electric Corporation Manfred Stern signed the agreement with Kočevje Mayor Vladimir Prebilič.

Prebilič said this investment was of national importance, a big day for Kočevje and a new boost to its economic success.

Stern thanked the local authorities for the excellent cooperation. He said that such investments were often met with fear of negative consequences, but in Kočevje the response was very positive, which is promising for future development of the plant.

Prebilič expects new education programmes tailored to Yaskawa's staffing needs will be introduced and will help generate the company's success.

He stressed that a workforce with the specific qualifications needed will nevertheless not be very easy to find, so in the long term the staff will need to be "trained, not brought in".

The new facility in Kočevje is to employ between 170 and 200 people and will start production in autumn next year.

According to Stern, the company plans to increase the initial output over time from 4,000 to 6,000 robots a year.

Yaskawa's investment in the new production location, its second one in Slovenia after the Ribnica plant, is estimated at EUR 25m. Slovenia will support it with a EUR 5.6m subsidy.