"It is of utmost importance for Slovenia's development how we support development projects which will have a long-term impact on sustainable business transformation and which will stimulate productivity growth," the GZS said in a release on Thursday.

The chamber has thus compiled Fresh Economic Impetus for Slovenia 5.0, a document prioritising six fields to achieve economic revival and social progress.

It said the outbreak of the coronavirus had at leat temporarily prevented achieving some key short-term development goals, such as added value growth, innovation, environmental sustainability and the modernisation of the public sector.

The GZS would thus like to boost domestic consumption by investing in energy and housing renovation, earthquake safety and in hospitals, care homes and kindergartens.

As for infrastructure projects, it would like roads and railways as well as IT and energy infrastructure to be built, renovated and upgrade.

The third priority is investment in digitalisation of companies and households as well as the environment.

Investment in R&D and smart specialisation should also be pursued, since many projects are already under way or ready to be launched, but have so far lacked funds.

As part of this priority area, the chamber proposes that the state provide part of the salary for R&D staff.

Investment in environmental projects should focus on improving various waste management and recycling projects, smart cities and communities, and water sources.

The last area is investment in agriculture, food-processing industry and food self-sufficiency, with the GZS stressing food self-sufficiency and the competitive edge of agriculture and food industry should be boosted.

It said that many projects had already been fully ready to be launched, while a number of them had been stuck due to red tap, so it urged debureaucratisation, saying it was "a key challenge for our future".

As for funding, the GZS said Slovenia can count on over EUR 5 billion from the EU's post-Covid recovery fund and on over EUR 3 billion from cohesion funds, with other EU programmes also available. Part of the funding could come from investments funds, local communities and the state budget.

The chamber moreover noted "the extremely big investment potential of the Slovenian economy, which achieved absolute record business results in 2019".