Ljubljana - Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Slovenia lack the funds and properly skilled staff to adopt digital technologies, shows a survey which took a closer look at digitalisation at Slovenian companies.

"SMEs will not be able to overcome such problems on their own," said Barbara Bradač Hojnik, the lead author of the Slovenian Entrepreneurship Observatory survey.

These companies will urgently need support from the business ecosystem - not only financial but also access to skills for the existing employees and for young people who are yet to enter the labour market, she added.

"The smaller the companies, the less likely they are to embrace new digital practices and the more likely they are to limit use to basic technologies," said Miroslav Rebernik from the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management at the University of Maribor's Faculty of Economics and Business.

The survey, carried out among businesses and the support ecosystem, was co-financed by the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology and the SPIRIT agency.

It was conducted as part of the business demographics analysis, which showed there were 118,959 companies in Slovenia in 2020, down 0.8% from 2019.

Almost 20% of all companies were in the sector of trade, maintenance and repair of motor vehicles, followed by professional, scientific and engineering activities, and by construction in third place.

In 2020, the Slovenian economy generated a net revenue of almost EUR 101 billion, which was around 5.9% less than in 2019, said Dijana Močnik, the author of the analysis.

Over 40% of the figure came from net foreign sales, which were 7.2% lower than in 2019, while operating revenue fell in almost all sectors, she said.