"Space technology can help us find solutions to challenges such as climate, environmental or social changes, food challenges and massive amounts of data," Economy Ministry State Secretary Franc Vesel said.

The conference was organised by the ministry in cooperation with the Russian Embassy, ICT company Iskratel, the Vitanje municipality and the Noordung Centre.

Vesel said that space technology development was a "niche opportunity for Slovenian companies", announcing that the government would boost the I feel Slovenia brand and the Green Creative Smart slogan in a bid to help businesses in their appearances in foreign markets.

Slovenia ranks in the group of strong innovators in the European Innovation Scoreboard, while placing 15th among 28 EU countries in the Digital Economy and Society Index.

"Our goal is to apply measures to stimulate the economy to go digital and to climb several spots on the index to get in the leading group of countries," said Vesel.

He also talked about cooperation between Slovenia and Russia, the 9th export partner for Slovenia, the fourth in terms of Slovenian foreign direct investment and 10th in terms of nights spent by tourists.

The event and the round-table debate entitled Don't Panic featured Slovenian officials and businessmen discussing digitalisation and high technology.

Among those present were Russian Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media Michail Mamonov and Russian Ambassador Doku Zavgayev.

In the technical part of the event, representatives of high-tech companies discussed various innovative solutions in health, power industry and public security.

They also set out plans for a biomedicine centre in the Planica Nordic Centre where space technology will be applied for the purposes of healthcare.

The Noordung Centre signed a cooperation agreement with the memorial complex of the Soviet cosmonaut Andrian Grigoryevich Nikolayev.

On the occasion the busts of Soviet space rocket engineer Sergei Korolev and Austro-Hungarian-born rocketry and astronautics pioneer Hermann Oberth were unveiled in front of the Noordung Centre.