This is Novartis's biggest investment in Slovenia so far.

Cerar said the project, which was cofinanced with half a million euros in public funds, was an "excellent" example of cooperation between a foreign investor and local employees, including highly qualified staff, that will benefit the local community, the region and the state.

It is very important for Slovenia to foster this type of cooperation, according to him.

Cerar said he had seen quite a few successful projects during the government visit to the region of Pomurje, which had led him to conclude that the region was reviving.

Sommaruga meanwhile said the project was important for jobs diversity and corporate social responsibility.

She also praised the cooperation between Slovenia and Switzerland in the face of the refugee crisis in Europe, calling for dialogue among "European partners".

Lek CEO Vojmir Urlep said that Novartis had invested over EUR 55m in the Lendava packaging centre, which would enable the continuation of the company's growth, while its total investments in Lendava exceeded EUR 110m.

Novartis has decided for what is its biggest single investment in Slovenia "due to increased demand for packaging medicines and the excellent and reliable work of our staff", according to him.

Jeff Rope, head of global technical operations at the Sandoz group, whose member is Lek, noted that Novartis had invested EUR 1.6bn in research in Slovenia so far and that the company employed over 3,000 people in the country.

The Lenadava packaging centre, operating since 2009, is one of Sandos's two strategic packaging centres for supplying over 60 European and global markets with Sandos's medicines produced all over the world.

Today new cutting-edge automated storage facilities and a bridge connecting them to the production facilities was inaugurated. As part of the project, the production facilities were also expanded.

Since 2009, the output of the Lenadava packaging centre has been constantly rising, at an average annual rate of over 35%. The centre has so far shipped off over 280 million packagings.

The number of employees rose from 35 to 250 in the meantime.

The new energy efficient centre was completed in 11 months. Slovenian experts and firms provided for both the concept and most of the equipment.