Italy is considered an important economic partner of Slovenia's, as trade between the two countries amounts to nearly EUR 6.5bn.

What is more, Italy had almost EUR 820m of foreign direct investments in Slovenia at the end of 2012, which makes it the third largest foreign investor in the country.

Its major investments are banks Banka Koper and indirectly Unicredit banka Slovenije as well as insurer Generali, company Julon, and a factory by Cecomp as the latest such undertaking.

This is why the prime minister's office considers the Milan conference an important opportunity to promote the expansion of the existing cooperation at a time when the government selected 15 companies to be privatised.

The conference, which will be attended also by Italian PM Enrico Letta, will be an opportunity for Slovenia to sign a contract to take part in the Expo Milano 2015.

The Milan conference will be followed by another in Moscow on Tuesday, where PM Bratušek will be on a working visit.

The first two investment conferences in Düsseldorf and Paris were hailed as very successful.

Before trying to convince investors to come to Slovenia this afternoon, Bratušek will take part in a second conference of the New Narrative for Europe project in the morning.

The project, unveiled by President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso in April, invites intellectuals, scientists and artists to reflect upon Europe's future.

The EU event will be attended by Barroso and Italian PM Letta, while Bratušek will be one of the speakers.