SBC wants new government to enable breakthrough
"What needs to happen in Slovenia needs to happen in the first year of the new government, otherwise there will be no breakthrough," SBC president Marjan Batagelj told the press after the meeting in Ljubljana.
The leadership of the club met with representatives of all parliamentary parties bar the opposition Left, and some other parties which opinion polls suggest could make it to parliament in the upcoming election.
Batagelj, who is the CEO of the operator of the Postojna Cave, said that the talks suggested that a majority of the parties agreed with their proposals for an income tax reform.
"Some parties advocate an even stronger reform, while others combine it with other tax measures, including the abolition of the highest income tax bracket (50%), and additional breaks for the 13th and 14th wage."
Some parties support a gradual introduction of a cap on social security contributions by employers, while a majority of the parties endorsed the club's proposal for mandatory specialisation of early-stage researchers.
The parties are also aware of the importance of immigration policies and that the shortage of competent workforce could be a huge obstacle for a further economic growth, Batagelj noted.
Executive committee member Igor Akrapovič, the owner of the namesake exhaust maker, called for measures to increase the number of high-quality jobs and the employment rate among the young and to prepare Slovenia for a potential new crisis.
Batagelj added that "economic growth is not and will not be eternal", while regretting that the outgoing government has failed to implement structural reforms, which are less painful when economic indicators are good.
He added that the members of the club, established at the beginning of 2014, were not members of political parties and that they would assess political programmes when the new government was formed.
Batagelj also assessed that politics is getting too ideological and that it "deals with content too little".