The Slovenia Times

Craft and small business chamber celebrating golden jubilee

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Small business is the backbone and driving force of Slovenia, OZS head Branko Meh said at the ceremony, thanking Pahor for recognising the role the chamber has had in the country's business arena.

"Small business accounts for 99.3% of Slovenia's entire economy; 116,000 companies employing 366,000 people," he added.

Apart from Pahor, Prime Minister Marjan Šarec, National Council Speaker Alojz Kovšca and a number of ministers attended the high-level ceremony as well.

The chamber handed out awards for best craftsperson of 2019 and best entrepreneur of 2019 at the event - the former was bestowed on Aleksander Gorečan, who runs the Penzel company, which provides house painting and interior decoration services, while the latter was given to Peter Podlunšek, the owner of the Medicop group, which specialises in manufacturing medical equipment and ambulance vehicles.

The chamber was established on 7 December in 1969 when twelve craft associations across Slovenia set up a joint organisation, a precursor of the OZS, to represent and support trade crafts and small businesses by promoting their interests and products. These targets remain the same after 50 years of such endeavours, Meh told the STA before the ceremony.

Slovenian craftspeople were the first in the former Yugoslavia and one of the first small business communities in East Europe to have organised in such a manner. The step helped them get a voice in the business world whereas before this move, it had been difficult to compete with big businesses in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the OZS ahead of the anniversary.

In 2013, the OZS had to make its membership voluntary, thus losing a share of its members - today, out of all crafts and small businesses in Slovenia, almost half of them are OZS members - some 25,000 in total.

Currently, the most burning issues the OZS is tackling are occupational diseases, annual leave holiday pay and red tape.

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