Announcing the decision by the SBC executive board for the STA on Thursday, SBC president Marjan Batagelj said that the cooperation would enable Slovenian entrepreneurs to gain access to the know-how of the BVMW and to the 530,000 members of the association.

"This is an important step in building a partnership with Germany, which is our biggest trading partner," said Batagelj, who visited the BVMW offices in Berlin last week together with the rest of the SBC leadership.

The delegation of the Slovenian club raised certain questions regarding succession and humanitarian activities at the meeting in Berlin.

"First and foremost it is about establishing foundations, which have been extremely successful in Germany. Slovenian SMEs are mostly as old as the country itself, which is why the experience possessed by the BVMW members is extremely precious," said SBC vice-president Marko Lotrič.

He stressed that the Slovenian state should better understand the importance of business environment in the world and introduce cases of best practice in its legislation. "It's not that we have bad laws, but we have to adjust them to the environment."

Batagelj, who too would like to see better cooperation with the state, has announced a large business conference in one of the coming months, at which the BVMW leadership will be invited.

The purpose of the conference will be exchanging experience and cases of best practice, including how business associations in Germany cooperate with the authorities, he added.

BVMW members employ a total of 11 million workers, and generate EUR 190bn in revenue annually. The association has 300 offices in Germany employing more than 1,000 advisors, ranging from legal to tax advisors.

It also has 40 offices outside Germany, which makes it one of the most internationalised SME business association in the world.

Upon the visit by the SBC delegation in Berlin, BVMW president Mario Ohoven said that the association wanted to cooperate with Slovenia and that the SBC was an excellent partner featuring respectful entrepreneurs.