BUILDING A KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY IN SLOVENIA

BUILDING A KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY IN SLOVENIA AUSTRIA HUNGARY ITALY CROATIA KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank, Paris, February 19-22, 2002

ECONOMIC GROWTH KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank, Paris, February 19-22, 2002

MACROECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS • 4,5% real annual growth of GDP (period 1999-2001); • 6,3% unemployment rate (year 2001); • 8,4% annual average inflation rate (year 2001); • Sustainable current account of the Balance of Payments (-0,4% of GDP in 2001); • Sustainable Public Finance Account (-1,4% of GDP in 2001,est.). Public finance reform in Slovenia is linked to the systematic development of human resources. By establishing a regional center for public finances “Center of Excellence in Finance” Slovenia responded to the urgent needs of human capacity development in the context of the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe. KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank, Paris, February 19-22, 2002

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank, Paris, February 19-22, 2002

THE STRATEGY FOR THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF SLOVENIA (2001) The Strategy’s main goal is to increase the welfare of people living in Slovenia in a sustainable manner, with welfare being defined as a balance between economic, social and environmental components. • The main mechanisms applied to bolster the complex competitiveness of Slovenia: • transition to a knowledge-based society, • strengthening the competitiveness of the economy, • improving state efficiency, • policies for Slovenia’s operational integration into the EUinternal market, and • balanced regional and spatial development. KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank, Paris, February 19-22, 2002

TRANSITION TO A KNOWLEDGE BASED SOCIETY • The building up of a knowledge-based society is supported by the governmental policies: • Human resource development policy; • Labour market and employment policies complemented by migration policy; • Research and development policy; • The building of information and communications infrastructure and the development of new services. KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank, Paris, February 19-22, 2002

EDUCATION AND SOCIAL CAPITAL • The education background of younger generations increased significantly in the last decade. In the 1990s the number of university students almost doubled, which was followed by a larger share of university graduates below 30 years of age. This positive developments are reflected in an increased number of well-educated and highly skilled job seekers on the labour market. • Good results on international tests in mathematics and science. • Slovenia faces dropping out and repeating at all levels of education. • The range of educational programmes does not follow fast enough the new demand for modern methods of training and re-training of active labour force. KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank, Paris, February 19-22, 2002

EDUCATION AND SOCIAL CAPITAL • Unfavourable enrolment structure in the university. • Post-graduate programmes are too fragmented and only loosely connected with the corporate sector. • Low functional literacy of a large share of the population. KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank, Paris, February 19-22, 2002

EDUCATION AND SOCIAL CAPITAL Source: SORS KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank, Paris, February 19-22, 2002

EDUCATION AND SOCIAL CAPITAL • Governmental priorities in the field of education and training are: • To increase total investment in education and training (public and private funding), particulary in the field of adult education. • To provide high quality education and training at all levels of the education process. • To raise the level of education of adults and promote lifelong learning. • To raise the level of literacy of all people and in all regions. • To boost the responsibility and motivation of employers to train their employees. • Participation in the European higher education area will improve the transfer of knowledge, the mobility of students, university teachers and researches as well as raise the quality of education. KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank, Paris, February 19-22, 2002

EMPLOYMENT POLICY • Governmental employment policy is based on: • programmes and measures to improve employability (first pillar); • programmes and measures to stimulate enterpreneurship (second pillar); • encourage the adaptability of businesses and individuals (third pillar); • ensuring equal access to the labour market and equal opportunities. KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank, Paris, February 19-22, 2002

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT Source: EC-DG Research, SORS KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank, Paris, February 19-22, 2002

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT The technological gap (measured in terms of the number of patents and the volume of investment in research and development) between Slovenia and EU countries is wider than the gap in GDP per capita or the gap in the share of GDP used for investment in research and development. International comparisons confirm lagging behind especially in corporate innovations. In the European Union’s 5th Framework Programme (1988-2002), Slovenia has been relatively successful. Moreover, Slovenia actively participates in EUREKA and several other multilateral and bilateral programmes. KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank, Paris, February 19-22, 2002

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT POLICY • Priorities of governmental R&D policy are to: • Invest more in aplicative research and innovation and prioritisation of R&D investment. • Stimulate co-operation between companies, and companies and R&D sector. • Create an environment conductive to technological development by use of company development instruments (incubators, technology parks, venture capital). • Stimulate the development of research institutes and units in the private sector. • Strenghtening international cooperation in research and development and increasing the mobility of researchers (in both directions). KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank, Paris, February 19-22, 2002

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY Last measurement: Slovenia: jan.2002; EU: feb.2001 *within active inhabitants KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank, Paris, February 19-22, 2002

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY Last measurement: Slovenia: dec.2001; EU: oct.2000 KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank, Paris, February 19-22, 2002

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW SERVICES • In order to close the gap behind the EU average in information and communications infrastructure the Government of Slovenia is: • liberalising the telecommunications market, • ensuring the security of operations for all players, • privatising the dominant operator, • stimulating joint investment into the telecommunications network of the private sector, external investors and the state, • providing inter-network connections and fast access to the Internet at affordable prices to all people. • A modern information and communications infrastructure reqires a number of services to support it (e.g. e-commerce, e-banking, teleworking, distance learning). In Slovenia, the level of development of those services, their efficiency, quality and versatility still lags behind the EU. The Government therefore stimulates the development of new services. KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank, Paris, February 19-22, 2002

BUILDING A KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY IN SLOVENIA THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION ! KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank, Paris, February 19-22, 2002

BUILDING A KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY IN SLOVENIA