The agreement to link what is to be the biggest sawmill in Slovenia to the motorway was signed by Darja Kocjan of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the head of the administration of the Braslovče Municipality Milan Šoštarič.

Šoštarič labelled the connecting road as an important factor for making the sawmill operational as soon as possible, and welcomed the project, saying that the entire region would benefit from it.

The project was also welcomed by Economy Minister Zdravko Počivalšek, who attended the signing. He reiterated that the government was supporting the investment as it wanted as much timber as possible to be processed in Slovenia.

"Our goal is to reach 2.1 million cubic metres of processed timber by 2020," he said, noting that the investment by BSW was expected to bring 170 new jobs.

"What is even more important is that it will process 300,000 cubic metres of wood a year," he said, adding that every industry needed "both big and small players", while Slovenia had been missing the former.

Počivalšek believes that the opposition to the investment by Slovenian sawmillers, who fear that it could wipe out hundreds of jobs in the Slovenian sawmilling industry, will gradually calm down.

BSW announced the start of construction of the biggest sawmill in Slovenia for September and the launch of production for the start of 2020. BSW will already be buying wood from Slovenian sawmills next year.