Commenting at a press conference on the ongoing environmental procedure for the Magna Steyr plant, he said it was the hardest step in terms of bureaucracy but in not in terms of content.

"We are deeply convinced that everything is in line with our legislation and that they have better results than existing industrial facilities in this field," the minister said about the Canadian-Austrian investment that has received support from the government.

He sees the opposition to the plant as motivated by fear of competition that will entail higher wages and stricter rules.

"We need to create conditions for the execution of the investment by September this year, or else the investor will be forced to activate an alternative location," Počivalšek said.

He dismissed concerns about excessive water consumption at the plant, saying the annual demands could be secured by the local provider in 80 hours.

"Any other claims are a manipulation," he said, also rejecting fear the plant could imperil ground water. "This is production that is closed off hermetically...and not production from a century ago."

"We are dealing with a player that employs 7,000 people in another city 60 kilometres away from Maribor. Located next to the fence of the production giant are a kindergarten, an elderly home, a city, and fields," the minister said about Magna's facility in Austria's Graz.

Počivalšek went to on to reiterate the wide-ranging economic benefits of the investment, which is expected to bring hundreds of jobs to a problematic region.

The minister made the comments at a press conference dedicated to the ministry's support to the businesses environment.

"We have 40 calls with financial incentives worth around EUR 300m available this year. This is a 100% increase on last year," the minister explained.

He took the opportunity to repeat his call for a gradual privatisation of state-owned tourism companies. Before that, he is in favour of these companies "being concentrated in one of the existing privatisation funds".