The share of Slovenians who perceive business opportunities stands at 34.6% in the 2017 survey, up from 25% in 2016, but this is still well below the European average of 41%.

Miroslav Rebernik, the head of the GEM survey team in Slovenia, has told the STA that the main reason is the education system in Slovenia failing to encourage entrepreneurship.

There is a global battle for talent going on and Slovenia is not effective in this department, he said, adding that "universities provide very good knowledge, but they do not encourage innovativeness and creativity".

Nevertheless, more than half of Slovenians (53%) believe that they have capabilities for entrepreneurship, which puts Slovenia in the first place in Europe in this respect.

Slovenians are also courageous, as fear of failure in business was expressed by 35% of the respondents, which is below the European average of 43%.

Slovenia has also improved in terms of entrepreneurial intentions, with the share of adult individuals who think about establishing a business increasing by 2.4 percentage points to 16.7%.

The share of those who actually make a decision to start a business is however still at a lowly 4%.

The rate the country's inclusion in international exchange is among the highest in the EU, as is the rate of internationalisation, which according to Rebernik is related to Slovenia's small size.

The share of companies who said that more than a quarter of buyers of their products or services come from abroad is 42%.

The Total Early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) index, which shows the share of the population who is establishing a business or has a new business, dropped to 6.9% from 8% in 2016.

The gender ratio has improved but still remains below the European average, standing at 0.46, or 4.6 female entrepreneurs per 10 male entrepreneurs.

Early-stage entrepreneurial activity among the people aged between 55 and 64 increased in the last two years from 5.5% to 7.4%.

But Rebernik believes that entrepreneurship among women, older people and youth is still not sufficiently encouraged.

The survey meanwhile shows that entrepreneurs are respected in Slovenia, with 73.4% of the respondents saying that they enjoy a high status, which puts Slovenia in the 5th place in Europe.

More than half of Slovenians (55.1%) believe that entrepreneurship is a good career choice, while more than 70% detected a positive media perception of entrepreneurship in the media, which puts Slovenia in the second place in Europe.