Just over 90% of Slovenian companies think digitalisation is important, the chamber's head Gertrud Rantzen told the press on Wednesday.

For the first time in the three years the chamber has conducted the survey, companies said they saw digitalisation as necessary to remain competitive, she said.

The three main reasons speaking in favour of digitalisation, according to companies, are higher productivity, competitiveness and effectiveness.

Among the obstacles and risks of digitalisation, they listed the qualification of their staff, high costs and data security, which is becoming increasingly important and is companies' primary concern in Germany.

Companies also said they planned to investment more in digitalisation, especially in the training of their staff, digitalisation of production and enterprise resource planning.

A fifth of the companies plan to invest 4-6% of their revenue into digitalisation, 44% of them will invest 2-3% and 27% will invest up to 1% of revenue.

A large majority, 74% of the companies, will not cut their workforce as a result, whereas 20% of them will hire additional staff due to digitalisation. Only 6% will reduce its labour force.

The chamber believes the state could support companies' efforts with tax incentives, promotion of research, support to continuing education and training as well as by setting up high-quality broadband networks, encouraging young talented people and with legislative changes in data protection.

The survey was conducted among 93 mostly production companies of various size in Slovenia.