"The Slovenian business community has an important role to play in improving the business environment," she told the STA in an interview ahead of her visit to Slovenia.

Bienkowska will be delivering this message at the 10th Slovenia Business Summit, which is taking place Tuesday and focuses on how to achieve an industrial revival in Slovenia.

She said she was pleased to see that Slovenian economy is getting back on track. Slovenia's commitment to reform, modernisation, improvement of the business environment and the cutting of red tape "puts you on the right path to ensure sustainable economic growth in the future."

Bienkowska noted that Slovenia had a lot of successful industrial sectors such as pharmaceuticals and the chemicals industry.

Its geographical location makes it "ideal for cross-border business activities", while skilled labour and the abundance of natural resources are "comparative advantages Slovenia should exploit more in the future."

Her portfolio focuses on the internal market but extends to industry, entrepreneurship and SMEs, the latter a segment that faces similar problems across the bloc: access to financing and excessive red tape.

She said that to further SMEs, Slovenia needed to increase the regulatory predictability in areas that are vital for entrepreneurs and key to attracting investors - urban planning, business permits and taxation policy.

SMEs, on the other hand, should take advantage of the EU's support structures such as the Commission's Investment Plan and the COSME programme.