The new official will be formally appointed at the prime minister's office, but will be able to work at the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology.

Šarec explained at a news conference in Ljubljana on Thursday he had decided on the move after Peter Vilfan recently resigned as sport state secretary in his office, making room for a new hiring.

He said the planned changes to the government law envisaged a state secretary for small business at the ministry. But since the changes are nowhere on the horizon, "I'll appoint a state secretary for small business in the prime minister's office ... with the option of working at the ministry".

The government has thus heeded to the calls of the Chamber of Craft and Small Business (OZS), which Šarec said felt its voice was not heard well enough.

On Monday, the OZS said it was disappointed with a parliamentary committee recently rejecting a proposal to hire a state secretary for small business as it voted on a proposal to hire six new state secretaries.

OZS boss Branko Meh said all parties except the Left had spoken in favour of a small business state secretary before last year's general elections, so he urged coalition parties to file a new proposal to parliament.

The OZS said as many as 117,000 legal entities or more than 99% of all Slovenian companies are micro and small companies.

Since the Slovenian economy is based on these companies, which employ around 352,000 workers, Meh could not understand why they could not get their own state secretary.

He also noted that in the past, the Lojze Peterle and Janez Drnovšek government even had a minister in charge of small business.

Economy Minister Zdravko Počivalšek replied to Meh on the same day, stressing he remained in favour of small businesses getting a state secretary.

Šarec said today he would reveal more details about the candidate in the coming days.