BUILDING A KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY IN SLOVENIA

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BUILDING A KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY IN SLOVENIA
KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank,
Paris, February 19-22, 2002
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ECONOMIC GROWTH
KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank,
Paris, February 19-22, 2002
3
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
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HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX
KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank,
Paris, February 19-22, 2002
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THE STRATEGY FOR THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF
SLOVENIA (2001)
The Strategys 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 Slovenias operational integration
  into the EU internal market, and
• balanced regional and spatial development.

KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank,
Paris, February 19-22, 2002
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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
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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
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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
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EDUCATION AND SOCIAL CAPITAL
KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank,
Paris, February 19-22, 2002
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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
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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
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RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT
KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank,
Paris, February 19-22, 2002
13
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 Unions 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
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RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT POLICY

• Priorities of governmental RD policy are to
• Invest more in aplicative research and
  innovation and prioritisation of RD investment.
• Stimulate co-operation between companies, and
  companies and RD 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
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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank,
Paris, February 19-22, 2002
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INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank,
Paris, February 19-22, 2002
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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
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BUILDING A KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY IN SLOVENIA
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION !
KED Forum for EU Accession Countries, World Bank,
Paris, February 19-22, 2002