The Slovenia Times 132

LIFESTYLE: The Importance of Potatoes

The Slovenia Times, Slovenian magazine in English, volume 7, number 132, EUR 4,80

September 2010

This is where IT’s at!

Cloud computing is gathering steam

Be Informed

CONTENTS

September 2010

POLITICS

6

The Government’s half time

10 12

ECONOMY

15 16

18 19

Vegrad finally declares insolvency Is there a way out for Prevent global?

Business Partners

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT Renault is one of oldest FDIs in Slovenia Minimum wage increase had no negative impact

DIPLOMATIC PAGES August events from embassies in Ljubljana An ambassador for BMWs

ICT special 20 22

ICT industry looking for the way out of crisis Interview: Gregor Golobič, Minister for Science and Education 24 Embarking on the cloud computing boat 26 ZITex establishes competence centers 28 Interview: Tone Stanovnik, director of ZITex 30 The state of IT in public administration 32 Global IT giants in Slovenia 34 Interview: Ivica Kranjčevič, chief executive of Telkom Slovenia 35 Mobile phone market continues to rise 38 Texting and googling – the impact on English language

40 42 44 46 48

30 51 52

58 59 60 Slo times avgust 230x95 mm 11. junij 2009 10:43:56

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LIFESTYLE A passion for roasted potatoes Lifestyle news Dine with style: Pule Estate Experience: Wellness Balnea The capital: Reading outdoors, Sunday market

CULTURE Andreja Kračun on charity fundraisng Exploration of tactile language through performance The Event Guide

SPORTS The opportunities of Stožice sporting complex The future os Slovenian football Sports events Every picture tells a story September 2010

source: STA, Slovenian Press Agency

Heavy Gunners

The Sins of Bosnian Our Fathers Knot

Prime Minister and the Archbishop contemplating the horrors of 20th Century

Prime Minister Borut Pahor and Ljubljana Archbishop Anton Stres visited the Huda jama mass grave near Laško and the site of Nazi executions of partisans at Stari pisker in Celje, a move heralding an end to bitter divisions over ideological aspects of WWII and its aftermath.

Huda jama is believed to contain the remains of around 3,000 victims of post-WWII killings perpetrated by the partisans, whereas Stari pisker is a former prison where 374 hostages were executed by the Nazis in 1941 and 1942.

“As we got more mature as a nation and a country, we have also become more mature when it comes to sensing the tragedies that occurred during and after WWII,” Pahor said. Archbishop Stres said the gesture was to show “moral indignation at what happened and compassion that we owe to all these people who were losing their lives in horrible circumstances”. Both stressed that the state had the duty to provide for a proper burial of the victims of postwar summary executions. Indeed, officials have announced after the joint visit that an ossuary at Huda jama would be erected by autumn. The move by Pahor and Stres was hailed by commentators as a great achievement.

Prime Minister Borut Pahor paid an informal visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina, meeting his counterpart Nikola Spirić and Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik for talks that focused on Bosnia’s future after the autumn general election and strengthening of bilateral ties.

The prime ministers focused on the situation in Bosnia, sharing a view that European prospects for Bosnia should be revived and that visa liberalisation should be the first step towards this end. Pahor reiterated Slovenia’s support for Bosnia’s efforts to join the EU. Among bilateral topics, the pair addressed the liabilities of Slovenia’s defunct LB bank towards its Bosnian clients, but no details were disclosed. Talks with Dodik meanwhile centred around the aftermath of the general election in October. Pahor said that representatives of the different nations in Bosnia knew best what is good for the future of their country. This is why dialogue needs to start after the election and an agreement needs to be reached on constitutional changes. The international community can assist in this dialogue, provided that this is what the political leaders in Bosnia desire. However, “drawing up a plan in Washington or Brussels...and then forwarding it to Bosnia’s leaders would be the wrong policy,” he said.

How to put Bosnia back on its feet? A UK donated tram in Sarajevo.

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The smoke screen around Patria is getting thinner.

The police investigation into the Patria deal concluded by filing charges against several person in connection with the disputed EUR 278m defence deal with Finnish contractor Patria. According to unofficial sources quoted by dailies Večer and Delo, the charges for suspected abuse of office, soliciting a crime and bribery in relation to the 2006 contract were filed against a businessman Walter Wolf; Joze Zagožen, a senior member of the Slovenian Democrats (SDS) who was reportedly involved in the deal; army officer Tone Krkovič, a close associate of former PM Janez Janša; and Ivan Crnkovič, the boss of Rotis, the Slovenian company selected to supply the armoured personnel carriers from Patria.

The report in Vecer disputed that charges have been brought against Janša, saying that the prosecution had filed a motion for an investigation against Janša and other members of his Democrats (SDS) regarding the Patria deal with the Ljubljana Local Court. This would mean that charges against him could be brought only once the investigation is completed. This is the second set of charges in the Patria case. In May 2009 charges were filed against retired Brigadier Peter Zupan, who used to head the Defence Ministry’s department for development in charge of weapons procurement, and painter Jure Cekuta, believed to have conveyed confidential data he obtained from Zupan to a Patria go-between, Austrian businessman Wolfgang Riedl.

Editor-in-chief Jaka Terpinc editor@sloveniatimes.com

Marketing/Advertising

Business editor Maja Dragović maja.dragovic@sloveniatimes.com

Irena Kržan irena.krzan@sloveniatimes.com

Chief sub-editor Claire Read Sub-editor Terry Troy Jackson, s.p.

Art director Maja Kaplan (design@domus.si) Front page by Jaka Terpinc

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UNDER THE PRESS Croatia

Environment

Saving the Bank Savings

No Fear of a Superbug

Slovenia and Croatia reached a tentative agreement at a meeting of the prime ministers to resolve the debt of Slovenian LB bank to Croatian savers, in compliance with the 2001 agreement on succession to the former Yugoslavia. No details were divulged, but the succession agreement determines that the issue be resolved in negotiations at the Basel Bank for International Settlements (BIS), where the original talks broke down over Croatia’s recalcitrance in 2002. Pahor promised that experts and diplomats would attempt to hammer out a deal within three months. While Pahor labelled the deal a “legally justified, equitable and promising direction”, experts were quick to point out that the final resolution is still far off. For one thing, return to Basel means that all five successors to Yugoslavia - Slovenia and Croatia as well as Serbia, Macedonia and Macedonia - will have to return to the negotiating table.

Slovenian health experts saidthat a new antibiotic-resistant bug known as NDM-1, recently found in India and already spreading around the world, poses no serious threat in Slovenia. There are other “less media-hyped” bacteria from countries closer to Slovenia that are a bigger problem, infectologist Milan Čizman said. Nevertheless, the hospital plans to screen patients potentially exposed to the deadly bug, mainly those who may have had medical care in India and Pakistan.

President Danilo Türk on (the end) the role of Slovenian forces in the Afghan war.

Borderline

Aliens vs the Police Slovenia has witnessed a drastic fall in the number of illegal immigrants from its peak ten years ago, when Slovenian police apprehended 35,892 illegal immigrants: only 422 were caught last year. Police officials say illegal migrants now rely on alternate routes to the EU. While the Slovenian border police force has not been bolstered in numbers in recent years, it has been provided with better equipment, which has helped produce results. Border police catches around 85% of all people who enter Slovenia illegally. While trucks full of illegal immigrants were stopped on an almost weekly basis at the start of the decade, today most illegal immigrants try to cross the border on foot. Most illegal immigrants caught in Slovenia come from the former Yugoslav republics and Albania.

Fishermen on Kolpa river: Cooperation between the police and the local population of border areas contributes to the control over illegal crossings.

Hungry for Slovenia Photo: BOBO

Immigration

I have already emphasised a few times that Afghanistan belongs to the Afghans. Solutions can only be achieved by Afghan political forces. Of course, we must take into account that Afghanistan has for decades been a victim of external interferences from its region, and for this matter, the international community should make more effort to decrease this destructive influence. This interference is essential for agreements within Afghanistan.

The peace assembly (loya jirga) this spring was the first step in this direction, and the implementation of its political ideas should be stimulated. As for the appointment of our forces, I think we must respect the government’s decision, which doesn’t mean we shouldn’t change it, if the circumstances change radically..

Joško Joras, a Slovenian living on a disputed stretch of land where Slovenia-Croatia border is yet to be determined, resumed a hunger strike he suspended three weeks ago, quoting the failure of authorities to make it easier for him to reach his house. Joras had been hoping that the gate would be removed after the Slovenian and Croatian prime ministers pledged at a July meeting to resolve the problems of people living along the border. But since the gate still stands, Joras decided to resume his protest. The office of the prime minister decried Joras’s move saying that attempts had been made to remove the gate but this was not currently possible.

There is more and more work for us. Despite the valiant efforts of everyone in the commission, it seems that corruption keeps growing. During the years of commission’s existence, we have faced a series of objective (i.e. politics) and subjective obstacles. What burdens us the most is the fact that we (were) more or less alone in our efforts. That’s one of the reasons the corruption is blossoming.

The departing anti-graft commission boss Drago Kos, on a RTV website chat, commenting on the state of corruption in Slovenia.

I’m fed up with the long running pretence of Slovenian politics, one or the other. This could be just my personal problem, if this pretence didn’t keep destroying Slovenian society and the state. And above all, it is constantly increasing the poverty, protecting the rich and the cheats, servicing the interests of most powerful groups and eradicating the remains of social and lawful state. It is taking away the last hope for any kind of development prospects to all of us, especially the young. Increasing numbers of events confirm my pessimism, while those in charge of sorting out the mess get lost in confusion amidst all problems, seeking some short-term solutions (if at all).

Former ombudsman Matjaž Hanžek in his letter to the media, protesting the unsolved problems of paying social security contributions.

Some might think that I am exaggerating when I say the “black dictatorship” was worse that the Nazi evil. It is essential to know that Nazism dealt with us as adults, while Fascism took on our children in nursery school and then in primary school.

Writer Boris Pahor in his address on the occasion of the European Day of Totalitarian Regime Victims, comparing the evil regimes of 20th Century

A WORD FROM THE EDITOR

Slack Time Digest

POLITICS

The government

By Jaka Terpinc

It’s always interesting to keep an eye

on what happens during the lazy Summer months when nothing major is meant to happen. Things, even the insignificant, get much more visible when nothing is around, and certain people know how to take advantage of that.

Take the Slovenian National Party, a small but persistent political formation of rather eccentric ideas. Here is a party which knows the right time for bombastic press conferences. Recently party leader Zmago Jelinčič – the self titled “Plemeniti” (the Noble), and apparently a top expert in everything – made a sensational presentation of his current concerns. Chief among them was a belief that the Slovenian Prime Minister is making covert moves to restore Yugoslavia. In a matter of years, the official language in Ljubljana will be Croatian! Great summer time reading! Most people probably reacted to this front page news with a smile, but the National Party still rates third to fourth in the polls and will probably earn some five percent in the next elections.

If conspiracies weren’t enough, the Summer has also been livened up with a top-level love-affair story. Or better, an attempt at it. This time it is President Türk at the centre of the allegations. Apparently Slovenia’s head of state has been intimate with his assistant at the university. All the characters needed for a great story are there: a man of power, a beautiful, ambitious young woman and a wife who wouldn’t sacrifice the respect and comfort the position of first lady confers. The story, absent of any hard evidence or confessions, was presented by a gossip website whose main business is the production of the affairs and a political magazine, notably loyal to a certain political option, unfriendly to the president. True or not, the story seem to have had less impact on the population than its promoters would expect. Is it the legacy of JFK or just respect for the president’s privacy – who knows? The worrying thing is that this “affair” provoked much more of a debate than, for example, the same president’s statements on the Afghan war, where Slovenia is stepping up its activities despite negative popular opinion.

Before the Slovenian nation is consumed by hostile neighbours, degenerated by bad examples from a decadent president, or attacked by the Taliban, many people are dealing with less historic but more real problems.

Even during holiday time, companies were suffocating in debts, laying off staff and shutting up shop. At least two well-known companies made frequent appearances in the August headlines: constructor Vegrad was a patient who underwent a lasting agony, associated with a terrible attitude to their hired workforce, while car seat manufacturer Prevent seem to have been euthanatised by its bickering owners.

While shareholders are not obliged to share the economic crisis’ consequences with their workers, their refusal to do so still leaves a bad taste in the mouth. In such conditions, company bankruptcies often come as a huge relief for the employees, whose concerns get transferred to the state. But with more and more individuals on the already expensive state’s welfare budget, the burden gets bigger and bigger, while fewer and fewer belief in the government’s ability to cope with this situation: only a quarter of the population according to the latest polls.

But the big picture is invisible to some: public employees for example, who would by no means accept a temporary freezing of their salaries, and are already plotting their extortion techniques. Still it would be wrong to assume that on the individual level we are selfish people. On the contrary! A sort of despair and general distrust to both economic and political elites revive more basic forms of altruism: humanitarian actions to support the jobless former Prevent employees resulted in a notable quantity of food and accessories for the school kids.

As Summer draws to a close, times are unpredictable. The calm is long gone. Clouds are still gathering. And all of us are beneath them, trying to keep our living standard, as well as our dignity. editor@sloveniatimes.com

The First Half Time The current government, led by Prime Minister Borut Pahor, is approaching half time in its first term. It’s a moment to reflect on what has been promised and what has been done.

By Jaka Terpinc

T

he September 2008 elections made Borut Pahor’s Social Democrats the strongest political party in Slovenia. A month later, a coalition was formed with two essentially liberal parties (LDS and Zares) and the pensioners’ party Desus. The goals of the coalition agreement were oriented towards sustainable growth, social security and the state of law. Their master plan was criticised, mostly for being a list of good intentions rather than concrete goals. Almost two years later, is the list still one of good intentions or is it one of missions accomplished?

Economy

T he coa l it ion ag reement presents a hard-to-digest blend of policies emphasising technological development, improved product ivit y a nd i nvest ment friendliness. Economic policy Photo: BOBO

was set to focus on competitiveness and the promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Of cou rse, t he gover n ment ’s term began when the wings of the growing GDP began to melt under the merciless conditions of global crisis meaning the whole adventure began as a rescue mission. We could witness the fall of over-loaned Slovenian tycoons, buy-i n s, buy- out s, sel l- out s, the collapse of some industrial plants, risi ng unemployment … The government was all but forced to intervene. To make matters worse, economy and welfare is one point where the coalition finds it rather difficult to agree.

The first cracks appeared only a month after the government was formed – one part of the coalition demanding the resignation of the boss of the state-owned NLB bank, which reprogrammed

POLITICS the loans of fallen tycoons, while others wanted to keep him.

Public finances and welfare

The coalition partners have adopted the standard policy in this field – that economic development is only attainable through an efficient welfare state which allows individuals to provide for their own social security and the security of their families, and ensures greater social cohesion. Higher employment, jobs that allow for a decent living, and flexible security through active social dialogue are the goals which rank prominently in the coalition agreement.

Here Pahor needs to untie a huge knot, which no government has seriously tackled before. Alongside the aging population and delayed first jobs, the pension system as it stands now will lead to a catastrophe. Reforms are essential and time is no longer on anybody’s side. The government has indeed increased the minimum wage, but this gesture didn’t seem to be taken into account when increasing the working age. In fact, a series of law changes were put on the table which are still being negotiated. When taking on the job, Pahor said he was well aware that he will take the blame for many unpopular, yet inevitable changes.

The motion to eradicate the dysfunctional system of student jobs resulted in huge protests (with unseen vandalism) in front of the parliament. The unions are ready to follow suit, while opposition leader Janša would also enjoy having

crowds on the streets. While there is no doubt reforms will eventually be made, it remains a question of how much risk Pahor is willing to take, and when. How much disapproval can he bear if he wants to remain the prime minister until the end of this term… and stay in power in the next one?

Foreign policy

The government announced closer ties with the developing world and the withdrawal of Slovenian troops from Iraq. The two military instructors were quickly withdrawn from the unpopular Iraq, while the forces remain present in Afghanistan, although, thus far, not in the vicinity of the frontlines.

Ties to the developing world are indeed materialising with high-level visits and delegation exchanges with countries such as Libya, China and Brazil. These actions are already bearing fruit in terms of encouraging trade and signing deals. Well, not only fruit but animals as well if one takes into account the camels which were Colonel Ghadafi’s gift to Pahor.

Pahor’s diplomatic ambitions also lie in the territories of the Euro-hopeful, but still a bit unstable Western Balkans. Attempts to gather all ex-Yugoslav presidents in one place fell short of success. Pahor failed to become the first man in history to make Kosovo’s president shake hands with Serbia’s president since the latter refused to attend the Brdo conference.

However, the biggest effort made in the foreign field has been a motion to settle the border dispute with Croatia. First it was tightening the relationships by saying no to Croatian EU accession until a “just” borderline was drawn. The tension was then loosened up by seemingly romantic talks with Croatian PM Jadranka Kosor. The negotiations resulted in an arbitration agreement. The side effect was a dramatic internal disagreement as to whether to accept international arbitration to deal with the dispute. In other words, Slovenians went arguing as to whether they want to argue with Croats or not anymore. As in many cases before, they have resorted to the ultimate wisdom of the referendum, which was a success for Pahor’s pro-referednum side.

Culture

The government highlighted media freedom as one of the cornerstones of democracy, promising legislative changes to boost the autonomy of journalists and editors and to remove politics

I, the Prime Minister…

Like him or not, it can’t be denied that the Prime Minister Borut Pahor has a certain level of political intuition. Not surprisingly – he has a degree in politology and has been a career politician ever since apart from a brief modelling career during his student years. Well, the man was voted one of the hottest heads of state in a recent poll.

His public appearances are frequent, in fact they are so frequent that some experts suggest that it would be wise to let other people from his office have a go too. His popularity as a person is relatively high, especially compared to the government he leads.

Pahor loves to use the first person. The “I” count in his speeches is high. As a constant speaker, he often gives the impression of brainstorming through his speeches. He may speak faster than he thinks at times but he can manage to laugh at himself.

While he is not on a par with George Bush for embarrassing public statements, he does have his moments. Here are just a few examples of so-called “Pahorisms”: I’m a very kind Prime Minister. I can come to your house to explain the making of arbitration treaty.

If we have solved all our problems this year, what would we have left for the next one? In such case, I would be unemployed.

If I ran 21 kilometres for more than two hours, I would resign. (…as a marathon runner) I should remain sober, because I’m on my way to the parliament.

At least one should be sober there. (refusing a Schnapps offered by students) What else will I hear? That I am a bastard, liar, a fool. OK, I can bear that. But I am afraid things will go so far that someone will dare say a man exists who is more handsome than I am. (…interview in a women’s magazin) and monopolies from the media.

The fortress which needs to be conquered here is the national broadcaster, which the previous conservative government made a thorough job of staffing and legislating. The army of Majda Širca is still gathering around it and drawing up plans. If the new law gets a confirmation in the parliament, the national TV will have slightly different sort of people in its council. Most importantly, it will not be a public institution anymore but something like “independent subject of public law of a special cultural and national importance.” The most concerned are the employees, who seem to be worried about the comfort of public sector employees, rather than about media freedom or quality reporting.

Law

A prominent role in the coalition accord was given to the fight against white collar and organised crime. The government plans to consolidate and boost existing law enforcement efforts and set up a financial police. The Interior Minister Katarina Kresal established a special police force to fight white collar crime. At the same time, arguably, Kresal committed one such crime herself by hiring office space from a family friend.

Most notably, the Interior Ministry was tasked with immediately implementing the ruling on “the erased”, retroactively reinstating the permanent residence status of persons crossed out from the permanent residence registry in 1992.

After years of populist treatment, the erased, regardless of their legal rights, remain the lesser citizens in the eyes of many voters, so it makes sense Pahor stood behind the motion, but did his best not to scream out support for the interior minister.

Environment

The planned Climate Change Office will spearhead Slovenia’s switch to a low-carbon economy.

The changeover will be based on the promotion of renewable sources of energy and efficient forms of transport. But the environmental plan doesn’t seem to be working out: the first of Pahor’s “original” ministers to leave was the environmental one. Among the major energy projects of this government is construction of additional generator at the Šoštanj coal power plant, which is alarming environmentalists. Another panic is caused by the gas terminals which Italy is about to build in Trieste bay. This issue is currently discussed at the highest level by Pahor and the Italian PM Berlusconi.

September 2010

Economy

FACTS AND FIGURES

source: STA, Slovenian Press Agency

Government Sticks to 65 as Retirement Age The Slovenian government has unveiled its latest proposals for pension reform, sticking with its plan for the full pension age to be 65.

The draft bill unveiled by Prime Minister Borut Pahor sets 65 years of age and at least 15 years of service as conditions for a full age-based pension. It also keeps 43 years of service for men and 40 years of service for women as conditions for early retirement with a full pension.

The proposal envisages a number of exceptions that would allow men to retire as early as at 60 and women at 58 if they started working young.

To meet the conditions for this exception men would have to have 43 years of service, while women would have to have 41 years.

In unveiling the document, Pahor said that the proposal would an overhaul a system that is unfair and uncertain due to the ageing population.

“The government’s ambition is to create a fairer and more predictable system of pension security,” he said. He argues that now is the time to act, because waiting would mean going “from bad to worse”.

Minister of Labour, Family and Social Affairs Ivan Svetlik said the current system was designed correctly in its core, but its effects were too weak. He

Trade unions are unlikely to accept Ivan Svetlik’s proposal

says the government’s motion will create a basis on which the state will be able to continue providing pensions normally.

All the new retirement criteria envisaged by the government would be introduced gradually, with the age threshold coming into force in 2024 and the years of service threshold taking hold in 2016.

The proposal also envisages bonuses for those who decide to stay on in a job despite meeting retirement conditions. They will receive 20 percent of the pension along with their wage for each additional year they stay employed.

Pahor and Svetlik seem unlikely to persuade trade unions of the value of the plans, however.

Unions have threatened to push for a referendum if the government fails to lower the retirement threshold to 40 years of service for men and 38 years for women. Under the government’s proposal, retirement at 60 years of age with 40 years of service for men and 38 years for women will be possible, but will be subject to a deduction.

Asked about the trade union’s threat to block the reform with a referendum, Pahor said this was the final draft version of the reform. It will be converted into a legislative motion immediately should the debate with the trade unions and employers show that compromises are impossible, he added.

“But if the sides put forward proposals that would make continuing the debate beneficial, the government can still call a meeting at which a new compromise can be crafted.”

Eco energy

Retail

Real estate

Energy

Slovenia’s First Biodiesel Power Plant Launched

Mercator On Lookout for New Opportunities

Apartment Prices Flat in Q2

ELES Secures EIB Loan

The Slovenia Times

The management of Slovenia’s top grocer has announced planned for further growth abroad as well as sales of some of its real estate holdings. Mercator has already secured three strategic tie-ups abroad this year – with Croatia’s Getro, Montenegro’s Panto and Serbia’s Coka – and its chief executive Žiga Debeljak says further opportunities for growth and development are being sought. Mercator reported net profit of EUR 17.7m for the first half of this year, a 60 percent year-onyear improvement, and 80 percent of the target profit for the whole of 2010.

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Photo: Mercator

Slovenia’s first biodiesel power plant has been officially launched.

The Panonica Energetika plant, based in Benedikt, is worth EUR 1.3m and will generate nearly one megawatt of electricity. This is equivalent to the output of Slovenia’s biggest solar power plants and yet the biodiesel plant stands up just 200 square metres of land. The plant will also produce about one megawatt of thermal energy. It will consume around 240 litres of biodiesel per hour and its annual consumption is estimated at 1.8 million tonnes.

Source: SURS

Price index of apartments in Slovenia 120 2000

Prices of second-hand apartments remained flat in the second quarter of the year compared to the first quarter the Surveying and Mapping Authority has said. Prices had risen by 4 percent year-on-year, however.

Country-wide, apartments now cost an average of EUR 1,737 per square metre. This masks huge differences between regions, however.

In Ljubljana the price was EUR 2,436, down one percent on the previous quarter but four percent higher than in the year before.

Prices in Koper on the coast are similar, but elsewhere they are significantly lower, ranging from EUR 1,829 in Novo mesto and EUR 1,205 in the country’s second largest city, Maribor.

Slovenia’s national electricity grid operator has secured a EUR 63m loan to modernise the country’s power grid. ELES will receive the long-term loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB). The funds will pay for a series of modernisations, including completion of the substation at Divača in western Slovenia, the construction of a 2X400kV power line from Beričevo to Krško, and the modernisation of the substation at the Krško Nuclear Power Plant (NEK). Under the deal, ELES will repay the loan in 25 years and will have a three-year moratorium on payment of principal. The interest rate is comparable to that provided for other EU infrastructure projects.

Tourism industry

Gorenje Returns to Profit

End of Term Results as Expected

Tourist numbers are increasing (in ‘000)

1500

Slovenia’s tourism industry has begun to pick up but is continuing to feel the impact of the financial crisis, the country’s tourist board has said.

Industry

Industrial Revenues Continue to Rise

Sales income is up on previous year 15

Sales income from foreign markets Sales income total

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5 Sales income from the domestic market

0 VI 09

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Source: SURS

Industrial revenues increased by 1.9 percent in June, the Statistics Office has announced. This represents the second consecutive month of growth and a year on year growth of 11.5 percent. Order sheets see more good news for industry, with orders rising by 2.7 percent in June over May and exceeding last June by 21.3 percent. The year-on-year comparison for June shows domestic orders up by 10.4 percent, while orders from abroad surged by 23.7 percent.

R&D investment

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jul 09

goals of the plan is to set up, in cooperation with the Foreign Ministry, Slovenian “houses” in all major target markets. The most important promotional activity of these houses will be to present culinary offerings from 24 gastronomic regions through 140 traditional dishes.

The dishes were selected in a project called Taste Slovenia.

Telecommunications

Ministries Dispensing Simobil Operating Profit Up 22% EUR 230m Two ministries are to dispense a total of EUR 230m to create development and competence centres.

Economy ministry will provide EUR 185m for development centres, while the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology will provide another EUR 45m for competence centres. Bids for development centres are invited until 15 September. Bidding for competence centres is open until 20 September.

Eco energy

Poultry Producer to Build Biogas Power Plant Poultry producer Perutnina Ptuj is to build a state-of-the-art biogas power plant at one of its former poultry farm. The plant, which will be located in a village near Ptuj, will produce electricity and heat using gas produced in poultry manure fermentation. The investment is estimated at EUR 6m, which the company expects will be returned in a decade. The power plant will produce 999 kW of electricity and twice as much as heat. The energy will be produced by bio-gas produced in anaerobic fermentation of bio-substrate. The electricity produced at the facility, which will equal 25 percent of the poultry producer’s total needs, will be put into the power grid. Some 30 percent of the heat will be used in the process of production, while the rest will heat a nearby feeding stuffs plant.

Slovenia’s second-largest mobile operator has increased its operating profit in the first six months of 2010. Simobil generated EUR 12.7m in operating profit in this period, up 22.1 percent over the same period last year. Operating revenues dropped by 7.3 percent, however, to EUR 81.7m year-on-year. Operating profit in the second quarter of the year topped EUR 6.4m, which is 10.3 percent more than in the same period in 2009. In a year-onyear comparison, revenues in the second quarter remained flat at EUR 42.2m.

Automotive industry

Iskra Avtolektrika Posts Profit

Photo: Iskra Avtoelektrika

The group around household appliance maker Gorenje has announced it posted a EUR 4.9m net profit in the first half of 2010.

The figure compares to a EUR 18m loss for the same period last year. Consolidated sales revenues amounted to EUR 610m, up 7.4 percent year-on-year. The half-year results have been hailed by Gorenje chairman Franjo Bobinac, who says the result is good given the relatively difficult conditions on the market.

He says the company generated three-quarters of all of the revenues from sales of home appliances. For the second half of the year Bobinac expects that fresh capital provided by the International Financial Corporation (IFC) in June and the restructuring of debt will help Gorenje push ahead with growth.

The Slovenian Tourism Board (STO) has indicated that end-year results will be on a par with, or possibly slightly, below last year’s. Visitor numbers dropped by two percent and overnight stays by one percent in 2009, but rose by four percent and two percent respectively in the first half of the year compared to the same period last year. The results were announced at a press conference marking the end of the four year term of STO boss Dimitrij Piciga. The government decided not to confirm Piciga for another term after an internal audit revealed a number of irregularities in his management of the organisation. STO officials believe the biggest achievement of the past four years is the success of the “I feel Slovenia” brand. One of the main

Tourist arrivals Overnight stays

Photo: Simobil

Photo: Gorenje

Home appliances

Source: SURS

The group around car electronics manufacturer Iskra Avtoelektrika generated EUR 2.24m in profit in the first half of 2010 its unaudited results show. The group’s 2010 business plan forecasted a loss but its sales revenues reached EUR 105.8m in the first half of 2010, 21.5 percent up year-on-year, and over 60 percent of the group’s planned revenue for the entire year.

Iskra Avtoelektrika’s revenues were up 43.7 percent compared to the same period last year, reaching EUR 78.1m – 64.8 percent of the company’s planned revenue for the whole of 2010.

Translation Agency www.grahprevodi.com

Providing quality only!

Experts on Technical, Legal, Medical and Other Texts GRAH PREVODI, s.p., Užiška ulica 6, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia T: +386 (0)31 731 006, E: info@grahprevodi.com September 2010

10 ECONOMY

Real estate

Between a Rock and a Hard Place Vegrad is in serious trouble. The construction company, heavily in debt, recently announced its insolvency.

Workers say they haven’t been paid. Investigators say some of the company’s actions may constitute criminal activity. The Prime Minister has repeatedly called on the firm’s general manager to resign. In short, it’s a mess – and one it doesn’t appear the company can easily extricate itself from.

Photo: BOBO

By Aleš Šinkovec

Hilda Tovšak has thus far survived calls for resignation

V

egrad is a company which has been in trouble for a long while. The construction company, one of Slovenia’s largest, first ran into trouble when the global credit crunch hit.

One of the worst affected sectors was the construction and sale of apartment buildings – the sector in which Vegrad is primarily involved.

Since then the situation has gone from bad to worse. The company is under an estimated half a billion Euros’ worth of debt; workers haven’t been paid for months; both the company’s general manager and chief supervisor have made offers to step down; and criminal investigations have been instigated. How did it come to this?

The crux of the criticism lies in the behaviour of Vegrad’s general manager Hilda Tovšak. Many have been angered by her insistence on keeping company supervisors at arm’s lengths, refusing to notify them of the firm’s ever decreasing liquidity.

Even the company’s insolvency was kept under From boom to bust Vegrad is a company that the radar.

expanded very quickly to achieve one of the most dominant positions in the construction market.

Once that market slowed down, it became increasingly hard for the firm to cover its outstanding debt.

It simply didn’t have enough cash flow to keep its projects running on time. Its biggest construction

The Slovenia Times

project, the apartment buildings in Šiška (Celovški Dvori), had its completion delayed multiple times. The project finally passed its inspection in August.

The economic downturn is the company’s main woe. But it isn’t the only one. Vegrad is now facing serious allegations of widespread impropriety regarding the treatment of its workers. Criminal investigations have begun due to allegations that the company hasn’t paid its workers’ wages for the past three months, nor paid the required welfare benefits to the state. On top of that, investigators are looking into funds missing from an account created by the workforce as a charity for the families of two deceased workers.

Managing blame

Vegrad’s management has said that all back wages will be paid out as soon as the company receives a cash injection. But some fear the workers will never see the money.

Criticism for the company’s management has not only come from its workers. The government and even the firm’s own supervisory board have been highly critical of its actions. The crux of the criticism lies in the behaviour of Vegrad’s general manager Hilda Tovšak. Many have been angered by her insistence on keeping company supervisors at arm’s lengths, refusing to notify them of the

firm’s ever decreasing liquidity.

Even the company’s insolvency was kept under the radar. Supervisors only knew of the situation when papers were filed with the court requesting a debt restructuring programme.

Tovšak’s behaviour is such that there have been repeated calls for her to resign – not least from the Prime Minister. Vegrad’s chief supervisor, Klemen Boštjančič, has announced that he will resign, because of the increasing misconduct on the part of the general manager.

Where now?

The fate of Vegrad, its management, supervisory board, and above all, the workers, is still up in the air. There are two options: liquidation bankruptcy or debt restructuring. Tovšak believes the latter is the lesser of two evils, giving the creditors more than they would under liquidation. It’s not that simple, however, as the company is facing very tough times with little cash flow. Receivership is feared as private individuals that have made a down payment on one of Vegrad’s apartments would lose both.

Many believe the firm’s future is tied to the fate of the apartments in Šiška – and its ability to find new projects. Ultimately it will likely be up to the courts, through a proper audit, to determine if the company is able to survive.

After months of failing to pay salaries to its workers, Vegrad declared insolvency on 12 August

12 ECONOMY

Automotive industry

Preventable Troubles?

Automobile parts manufacturer Prevent Global is facing bankruptcy. The firm has been hit hard by the recession, but could its current problems have more to do with bad management than a bad economy? And can the government help save the company?

Photo: BOBO

By Aleš Šinkovec though there were hopes of going through a debt restructuring process, it ultimately proved impossible because of firm’s lack of orders and the fact it only had one client. This has greatly affected the 1,260 workers employed in the Koroška region, as well as the rest of the firm’s workforce. Employees have not only had to face redundancy but are still owed considerable back wages, with the company not even paying social contributions. A series of strikes has ensued, with many workers having to take aid from charities to survive.

Search for a partner

Despite the bankruptcy, many of Prevent Global’s workers might be able to get back to work

W

ith apologies to George Orwell, it could be said that the financial crisis has hit all industries equally – but some more equally than others. One of the hardest hit has been the manufacturing sector, as Slovenian company Prevent Global would testify. The automobile parts manufacturer specialises in the sewing and manufacture of car upholstery but has found few takers for its services during the economic slump.

The company is now going through bankruptcy proceedings.

At first sight it might look like a simple case of a company killed by the recession. But look deeper and it becomes clear that there has been something far more complicated going on at the company.

year. The initial plan was to move workers from the company’s factory in Radlje ob Dravi to Slovenj Gradec. Between 350 and 400 would have been made redundant. But it seemed like the move might keep the company afloat, as outstanding loans amounting to EUR 55m were extended.

Unfortunately, there was a problem that the plan didn’t solve: an ongoing battle between the two leading shareholders in the firm.

Janko Zakeršnik (with 52 percent ownership) and Nijaz Hastor (with 45 percent) have long disagreed over the best course of action for the Planet Global. Zakeršnik went as far as banning Hastor from the company’s management or supervisory boards. One of the residual effects of this deteriorating relationship was the relocation of labour abroad. Hastor’s company Prevent DEV became Prevent Global’s only customer.

Boxmark Leather has stated that it could employ 250 workers in the first month, and up to 700 in the first six months, depending on economic support.

The situation remains uncertain but it seems that in spite of a Power struggle bad economy and a Prevent Global had a revenue of shareholder struggle, EUR 42m in 2009, but it was not as it effectively made a some Prevent Global enough loss of EUR 7m. These results led Inevitable outcome workers might be able to to the company begin restructurOn July 22, Prevent Global figet back to work. ing procedures in January of this nally declared insolvency. AlThe Slovenia Times

The number of people affected by Prevent Global’s problems is such that the government has pledged to do all it can to help the ailing company. But it won’t simply be a bailout. Instead, the Labour Mi n ist r y is supporting the workers who have lost their jobs by providing financial aid and employment retraining programmes.

To avoid liquidation, Prevent Global is searching for a strategic investor who would be able to acquire what remains and develop it from that point on. Prime Minister Borut Pahor and Economic Minister Darja Radić have been assisting in the search for a suitable investor. Rumours suggest that Renault was approached, but the deal fell through as the two majority shareholders of Prevent Global apparently requested too much. The current frontrunner is Boxmark Leather, an Austrian leather manufacturer which also owns a plant in Kidričevo. The company represents the same part of the market and it also has orders from some very large automobile brands, such as Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen.

Boxmark Leather has stated that it could employ 250 workers in the first month, and up to 700 in the first six months, depending on economic support. The situation remains uncertain but it seems that in spite of a bad economy and a shareholder struggle, some Prevent Global workers might be able to get back to work.

14 FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

FDI

NEWS IN BRIEF

source: STA, Slovenian Press Agency

Recycling

International trade

Manufacturing

Possibility of Foreign Investment in Gaming?

Government Incentive for Julon’s Investment

Slovenia Records Trade Surplus

Factory Gate Prices Up in July

Slovenia’s Prime Minister has called for investments in the country’s gaming industry, saying that foreign investment in the troubled sector would be particularly welcomed. Borut Pahor’s comments came as the government prepares for a public debate on its draft strategy for the gaming sector. The document, drawn up the Finance Ministry, is due to be put to public debate this month. Pahor has said he regards gaming as an important part of Slovenia’s tourism sector.

He argues that gaming companies should participate in promoting tourism in general. As far as ownership is concerned, Pahor favours a state gaming holding, although he says experts should make the ultimate judgement on this.

Excise duty

August Brings Higher Excise Duties Temporary increases on excise duty for cigarettes, electricity and gas have been introduced in Slovenia.

The changes came into force in August and are designed as a stopgap measure to help compensate for the drop in the country’s budget revenues. Excise on electricity, previously at EUR 1 per MWh, rose to EUR 3.05. Another hike is planned for November, to EUR 12.1 per MWh. Excise on gas meanwhile increased temporarily from 0.63 cent to 3.63 cent per cubic metre. The duties on cigarettes increased by a minimum of 4 percent.

The Slovenian government is to invest in an innovative recycling project. The government will contribute EUR 3.6m to the high-tech project from Julon, an Italian-owned synthetic fibers manufacturer. The Econyl project will involve recycling different kinds of waste into a compound called caprolactam, the basis for the manufacturing of polyamide 6. Econyl will create 46 high skill jobs and has an estimated value of EUR 15.7m or EUR 17.4m including the cost of two years’ worth of gross earnings and social security contributions for new staff.

The project is the first to be backed by the government as part of the decree on financial incentives for foreign direct investment (FDI).

Soft drinks

Radenska Looking for Growth Abroad

1800

Export

1650 1500 Import

1350 1200

Dec 09

May 10

Both imports and exports rose in June according to figures from the Statistics Office. The country exported EUR 1.67bn worth of goods in June, while imports stood at EUR 1.64bn. Exports were up 18 percent compared to the same month in 2009, while imports rose 17.3 percent year-on-year. The figures put the export-import ratio for the month at 101.9 percent. Exports to EU markets amounted to EUR 1.19bn, representing 71.7 percent of Slovenia’s overall exports. Imports from EU countries stood at EUR 1.3bn, representing 79.3 percent of the total worth of imported goods.

Business

Paloma Seeks Strategic Partner Radenska cannot extend its market share further in Slovenia and will now look abroad for growth according to its chief executive Zvonko Murgelj. The company, best known for its mineral water, is looking at both neighbouring countries and those further afield. “The trends in neighbouring Austria are favourable,” says Murgelj. “Things are also looking up in Italy, but in Croatia we are maintaining contacts and waiting for it to join the EU, when customs barriers will be dismantled.” Murgelj says the markets of the former Yugoslavia will be a top priority since Radenska is a well known brand in those nations. But he says the firm is also looking at the Middle East.

JAPTI (Public Agency for Entrepreneurship and Foreign Investment) is a business facilitator providing free information and advising services for foreign investors: • • • •

Trade is on the up in (‘000 EUR)

Source: SURS

Gaming

Information on business opportunities, legislation, taxes and incentive Information on industrial sites and local suppliers Links with industry and local authorities Arranging visiting programmes to the most suitable locations The Slovenia Times

One of Slovenia’s largest tissue producers is in need of a capital injection of EUR 20m, its supervisory board chairman has announced.

Krešo Šavrič says Paloma is now actively seeking a strategic partner to provide the cash injection. Its current majority owner, the state-owned PDP restructuring company, does not have the means to supply the needed capital. PDP will support the financial injection when a partner is found that is willing to take over more than half of Paloma, according to Šavrič. PDP is also demanding the involvement of an international financial adviser, who is expected to be selected in midSeptember.

Slovenian factory gate prices are continuing to climb according to new statistics. In July, the prices – which represent the basic price of goods as they leave the factory gate – rose by 0.2 percent on the previous month.

This represents a 3.4 percent yearon-year rise. The biggest monthly output price hike recorded in the manufacturing of clothing and of motor vehicles and trailers (both +1.3 percent), while prices fell most in the leather industry (-5.1 percent).

Automotive industry

Slovenian Firm to Produce Coils for Ford A subsidiary of Slovenian company Iskra Avtoelektrika has launched production on a new car part, creating 20 jobs in the process.

Iskra Bovec was selected as the new manufacturer for ignition coils for US car maker Ford by German industrial conglomerate Robert Bosch. The first stage of the project involves producing a million eurosworth of coils a month for Ford, but the number will be halved once production of the coils also begins at Ford’s plant in Brazil.

Real estate

Libyan Business Reps Mull Stožice Investment

Borut Pahor has met a Libyan business delegation to discuss possible investment in the final leg of construction of the new Stožice sports and shopping complex. The business representatives are said to have informed Pahor of the prospects of their joining the project. A final decision is expected shortly, after the representatives have consulted the Libyan authorities.

Division for FDI Verovškova 60 1000 Ljubljana Slovenia tel.: +386 1 5891 870 fax: +386 1 5891 877 e-mail: fdi@japti.si www.investslovenia.org

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT 15

Renault

A Strong History, a Promising Future

B

ack in the 1970s, Yugoslavia had a very strict rule about foreign car manufacturers.

Any foreign company wanting to sell its products in the Federation had to set up production in the country. It was a rule which saw French car company Renault establish its first presence in the country: a collaboration with Litostroj. After a year, the contract was transferred to IMV. The Novo mesto-based firm already had experience in the production of vehicles, having cooperated with British Motors and having made their own caravans.

It was a move which would prove to be the turning point in Renault’s Slovenian presence.

Revoz – the firm’s Slovenian subsidiary – was borne out of IMV and was founded in 1989 as an enterprise for the production and commercialisation of Renault vehicles. In June 1990 Revoz became a public limited company, with Renault taking a 20.2 percent stake. The French firm has gradually increased its share and in 2003 became the 100 percent owner of Revoz.

Today the subsidiary is one of 38 industrial branches of the Renault Group in 17 countries worldwide and has been, for 18 years in a row, Slovenia’s biggest exporter.

“The Revoz factory grew with each project, from the production of Renault 5 – that saw its last model drive out of the Novo mesto factory – through to Clio’s first and second generation, and up to Twingo and Wind,” reflects company spokeswoman Bašek Zildžović.

“Due to large investments and skilled and motivated employees, the factory gained in importance within Renault’s industry system,

French car company Renault is one of Slovenia’s oldest foreign investors. It is also, thanks to several decades of near constant expansion, one of the biggest and most important. While the economic downturn may have slightly slowed progress, Renault is still firmly ensconced in Slovenia – and plans to remain that way.

By Maja Dragović

so that today we can boast to be one of the most effective and reliable factories within the group.”

amounting to 212,680 vehicles produced in one year.

Slovenia’s pros and cons

In the first half of this year production was maintained at a high level, but Zildžović says the second half of 2010 will see production cut back to two and a half shifts.

“This is partly due to most European countries eliminating the incentives for the purchase of new vehicles,” she explains, “and partly because Renault Twingo – our most important model in terms of quantity – moved into the second phase of its life cycle which is when orders usually see a decline.”

A well-educated and highly skilled workforce is one of the main advantages of Slovenia as a foreign direct investment location, Zildžović says. She says Renault also benefits from the country’s good geographic position.

There are some disadvantages, however. High running costs, especially the cost of electricity, is one downside which makes Revoz one of the most expensive plants in the Renault group, so “reducing our competitiveness”, according to Zildžović.

“It is also necessary to mention high taxation on labour costs, and some administrative procedures are still too complicated to be able to attract new investors,” she says.

Plans for the future

But Zildžović says plans show Revoz will remain an important component of the Renault group.

“Renault, in partnership with the Renault-Nissan Alliance and the German firm Daimler, has already confirmed production of the new Twingo and new Smart – which will be built on a common structural basis –will take place in the Revoz factory from 2013.

“This is certainly encouraging news for Revoz,” she says, “bringing new development opportunities and ensuring the mediumterm existence of production in Novo mesto.”

Several decades after Renault first came to Slovenia, it seems it is more settled here than ever.

Facing the crisis

Of course the main business issue lately, no matter where in the world a company is located, has been the global economic downturn. The automotive industry was one of the first to suffer the effects of the crisis. Revoz was no exception. At the end of 2008 the demand for its models dropped so suddenly that the factory had to shrink production from three shifts to two and a half shifts.

Fortunately the crisis was short lived. Thanks to incentives for the purchase of new vehicles in several European countries, demand rose again from April 2009 onwards. As a result, the factory again started operating at full capacity and in late 2009 it even achieved a new production record,

Despite the crisis, Revoz achieved a new production record in 2009, amounting to 212,680 vehicles September 2010

16 FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

Minimum wage

Higher Minimum Pay Has Not Increased Unemployment Back in January, there was a lot of hype about what sort of impact the 30 percent rise in the minimum wage would have on businesses, unemployment and on Slovenia’s competitiveness as a whole. The latest unemployment figures suggest that the move may in fact have had a positive rather than negative impact on the economy.

By Maja Dragović and STA

A number of companies in Slovenia, including foreign firms with foreign ownership, raised No impact The minimum wage was inconcerns when the wage creased by EUR 102 to EUR 562 net was increased, arguing it in March. Supporters of the hike was “uneconomical”. argue the new unemployment fig-

Number of self-employed is on the rise (‘000) 100

Unemployed

95

90

Self-emlpoyed

85

80

Jan 10

The Slovenia Times

Jun 10

Source: SURS

ures prove it has not had a negative impact.

“Raising minimum pay did not and will not… affect unemployment,” says ZSSS boss Dušan Semolič, adding that it can even spur positive processes as employers develop new products and services with high added value instead of exploiting workers.

Even the Office for Macroeconomic Analysis and Development (UMAR) has changed its first pro-

jections that unemployment could grow in the long run by over 17,000 due to the increase in minimum pay, according to Semolič.

Photo: BOBO

T

he figures for July showed that around 98,400 were out of work. This is a fall of from the 99,570 unemployed in January.

In the first seven months of 2010, 12,928 people lost their job due to redundancy or bankruptcy of their company, while the number reached 18,846 in the same period last year. Similarly, the number of those unemployed because their contract ran out dropped from around 27,630 to 21,700 for the same period.

Some are still cautious

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GZS), however, remains concerned about the increase. It predicts the jobless number will soar towards 120,000 as a result of the recent collapse of several large companies and the sudden and steep rise in the minimum wage.

Minister of Labour, Family and Social Affairs Ivan Svetlik has downplayed those assumptions, saying that the number of unemployed will peak at around 105,000 and even if the figure does go above 105,000, there would still be no reason to panic.

“But I believe that this number should not exceed 105,000 by too much, despite the possibility of problems in some sectors,” Svetlik has said.

GZS general manager Samo Hribar Milič is nonetheless standing by his organisation’s estimates. He did note, however, that the projected unemployment increase of 75,000 people was only the worst-case scenario, while other analyses also predicted other outcomes.

He argues that regular employment has continued to fall and self-employment has risen. He says the increase is because some have been “forced” into self-employment to reduce company costs and others have opted for it so as to benefit from the self-employment subsidy. Hribar Milič also notes the number of work permits for foreign citizens has been further reduced, meaning foreign workers have had to leave Slovenia.

Data of the Agency for Public Legal Records and Related Services (AJPES) shows that in June

Dušan Semolič, head of trade unions, is adamant the minimum wage cannot impact unemployment

42,590 people in Slovenia were on minimum wage, over 39,000 of whom work in the private sector, which employs a total of 460,300 people.

A number of companies in Slovenia, including foreign firms with foreign ownership, raised concerns when the wage was increased, arguing it was “uneconomical”. However, developments thus far suggest that the minimum wage raise is forcing companies to invest in high added value workforce. For now, the policy seems to be working even on the job market.

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18 DIPLOMATIC SOCIETY

EMBASSY DIARIES Lithuanian embassy

Italian embassy

Ukrainian embassy

Lithuanian state flag on top of Triglav

A new deputy for Pietromarchi

Celebrating independence

Italian ambassador to Slovenia Alessandro Pietromarchi has bid farewell to his deputy and welcomed his successor.

A late-August reception at the ambassador’s residence officially marked the end of Dr Michele Cecchi’s tenure as Deputy Ambassador, and welcomed successor Dr Tommaso Coniglio (picture) to the post.

The Ukrainian embassy has celebrated the 19th anniversary of the country’s independence with a special event. The 24 August event was hosted at hotel Lev in Ljubljana, with Ukrainian delicacies tempting the guests. Amongst the many distinguished individuals present were Andrew Page, the British ambassador, Janez Škrabec, CEO of Riko, and Istvan Szent-Ivanyi, Hungarian ambassador to Slovenia.

Swiss embassy

Reich becomes new ambassador

An unexpected treat

Indian embassy

Retired officer of IAS appointed ambassador Jayakar Jerome, a retired officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), has been appointed as the next ambassador of India to Slovenia. Jerome, who succeeds V S Seshadri in the role, is the first non-Indian Foreign Service (IFS) retired officer from Karnataka to become ambassador. Mr Jerome previously served as the Commissioner of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) and later as Secretary to then Maharashtra Governor S M Krishna. Jerome is credited with resurrecting the BDA during his tenure as its head and for taking up several infrastructure projects in Bangalore. He retired from the IAS in 2006.

U.S. embassy

Switzerland has a new ambassador to Slovenia. Robert Reich is the third individual to hold the post. Born in 1950 and a native of Wildhaus/SG, Reich passed his school leaving examination at the German High School in Stockholm in 1969 and graduated in economics from the University of St. Gallen in 1973. He entered the diplomatic service in 1975 and, prior to being appointed in Slovenia, served as ambassador in Ecuador and Sweden.

Visitors to Trnfest 2010 were able to enjoy a performance by an American improvision troupe thanks to support from the US embassy. Randy Dixon and Paul Levy, from Seattle-based Unexpected Productions, performed their show “Spoken” to an appreciative audience at the August event. Over the course of the hour long show, the actors demonstrated not only their impressive improvisational skills but also the power words have to entertain, hurt, or heal.

Photo: Chris Wurst

The Lithuanian ambassador has marked the twentieth anniversary of his country’s independence in a very special way – by climbing to the top of Slovenia’s highest mountain peak. Rimutis Klevečka was joined by twenty of his countrymen for the climb to the top of Triglav. The event was the brainchild of Dainius Babilas, the director of Kaunas Cultural Centre of Various Nations. He gathered Lithuanians of very different professions for the hike: professors at universities, doctors, Lithuanian army representatives, businessmen, teachers and students. On reaching the summit of the peak, the group raised the Lithuanian state flag. As well as marking independence, the event was designed to symbolise the friendship between Lithuania and Slovenia.

Special annual issue brings you the best in investment opportunities, economic success stories and top lifestyle choices.

Contact: Tel.: +386 59 045 003, marketing@sloveniatimes.com, www.sloveniatimes.com The Slovenia Times

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COMING IN JANUARY 2011

DIPLOMATIC SOCIETY 19

BMW

An Ambassador for BMWs

If you ever see one of Slovenia’s many diplomats or ambassadors arrive at an event, chances are you will notice that they have used a gleaming BMW for the journey. The German vehicles are now the most popular premium cars in Slovenia – and thanks to a Ljubljana-based firm, they are particularly favoured by the nation’s diplomatic corps.

By Claire Read

A

Cosmos, a car sales company, doesn’t have a slogan.

Was the 73-strong team to sit down and brainstorm one, you can’t help but think that the result might mention the company being a favourite of ambassadors.

“We started selling BMW cars to Slovenian embassies back in 1991,” remembers Marjan Božič, company’s special accounts sales manager. “We sell to all embassies in Slovenia, as well as to embassies in other countries in the region such as Montenegro, Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. It has always been a very pleasant experience and now a number of embassies are devoted customers of BMW.”

Not so different

Božič says the process isn’t that different from selling to his many non-diplomatic clients: “The vehicles that diplomats use on a daily basis are similar to those that other customers use.”

“The greater difference occurs with official cars,” he explains.

“The colours for those vehicles are always dark, as dictated by protocol – dark grey, dark blue, or black. And there are additional features for flags and for laptop connections and so on. Diplomats order the vehicles individually as BMW has a variety of features that can be equipped with a variety of different equipment to meet the needs of buyers.”

A reliable market

While Božič says that the ambassador market will never be a

huge one – he estimates that his firm sells about 25 cars each year to embassies – it is a reliable one.

Embassies change cars every three to four years, as mandates change.

And larger embassies will have multiple cars.

“In bigger embassies, there are usually two cars for the ambassador’s use,” explains Božič. “Then there are other vehicles that are used by the rest of the embassy staff. These are bought by individual employees, based on their financial capabilities.”

Official cars tend to be Series 7 or Series 5, says Božič, but individual embassy staff might opt for Series 1, or X1, X3, X5 or X6. Prices vary accordingly, with a Series 1 starting at EUR 16,000.

Diplomats, however, benefit from tax-free purchasing, and consistent pricing – Božič explains that the basic prices for BMW are the same across the world. So if a Slovenian diplomat’s next posting takes him or her to New York or Shanghai, the price tag for a new BMW will be the same as it would have been in Ljubljana.

In any case, he feels diplomats’ buying power hasn’t been affected by the financial downturn.

“I have to say we haven’t noticed a huge drop in sales since the crisis,” says Božič. “That’s probably because diplomats have the same wages as they did before the downturn. However, the crisis did have an impact on the sales of official diplomatic cars – governments are cutting down on costs and so not changing cars as often as they did before the crisis.”

In spite of this, BMW has now overtaken Audi in sales of premium car brands in Slovenia.

More than vehicles

A Cosmos’ services to the diplomatic sector go beyond mere car sales, however. The team also helps drivers of embassy cars meet the special demands on them.

“We provide special BMW driver training for [these] drivers,” explains Božič. “And for regular staff for organise training so they can get to know the car better, and know how to behave in critical situations.”

“Since the slogan of BMW is ‘Sheer Driving Pleasure’ we want our customers to enjoy and be able to drive comfortably to their destination,” reflects Božič. One feels that’s a slogan which applies whether you’re a diplomat or a more “regular” A Cosmos customer.

Official cars tend to be Series 7 or Series 5, says Božič, but individual embassy staff might opt for Series 1, or X1, X3, X5 or X6.

Marjan Božič believes that, though the ambassador’s market may never be a big one in Slovenia, it will always be a reliable one September 2010

20 ICT SPECIAL

ICT industry overview

Recovering from the Downturn?

IDC Adriatics, part of the world’s leading Information Communication Technology (ICT) market intelligence and advisory firm, has released its latest report on information technology in Slovenia. The news is mixed: the ICT industry in Slovenia shrunk overall last year but some sectors managed to stay buoyant. Can the sector recover this year, and address the challenges that now face it?

By Miran Varga

T

he results are in: the ICT market in Slovenia shrunk by 6.1 percent in 2009. The figure, from IDC Adriatics, corresponds to trends globally but still

makes for sobering reading in an industry which had seemed to be weathering the storm. In 2008, few predicted that the new financial downturn would hit every single

developed country in the world.

Slovenia was no exception, and its economy began to stumble. Even so, the country’s ICT sector managed to record another great and

record breaking year as the market reached USD 2,173m in value.

But when ‘pre-crisis’ projects that were in motion ended, all that was left was a big hole as

ICT SPECIAL 21 companies struggled to create new business opportunities. New projects both big and small were postponed by companies who needed to control their investment policy more strictly. Some projects were broken into smaller pieces or even revoked. Projects in the public sector dried up too, with government budgets cut or redistributed.

Outsourcing grows

In practice this has meant that much of the ICT sector is now focused on maintenance of existing infrastructure. More than half of the market value was generated by telecom services, followed by hardware sales and IT services.

Software sales rounded up the market with less than ten percent market share. The only investments that were realised were those with clear cost cutting elements in place.

What that has meant is growth for one specific branch of IT: outsourcing. It is the only segment of IT services to have recorded sound growth in the past year. Cost cutting tendencies have prevailed among chief executives and many chief information officers had to respect such decisions and act accordingly. Outsourcing whole IT departments to external service

providers is still controversial but there are often no real obstacles to use outsourcing in non-business critical areas if it offers significant cost savings.

Still a strong industry

In spite of the challenges the Slovenia ICT industry is facing, IDC Adriatics’ figures show that it is still the most mature and advanced in the region. ICT spending per capita is highest in Slovenia where it reached USD 1,024 in 2009, compared to USD 730 in Croatia and USD 442 in Serbia.

As this sector of the economy outperforms many others in terms of growth and revenue generation it makes for an important part of national industry.

Innovative solutions and great technical expertise can be found in Slovenian ICT, especially in software companies which are trying to make a mark in the global software market. Many Slovenian companies are already beginning to see that IT can bring them a crucial competitive edge over the competition and are keen to adapt to new way of creating business.

There are fears, however, that there are not enough experts to find these new technological approaches to business. The demand

for highly skilled information workers continues to grow and local universities have adapted their curriculums to better support the needs of ICT companies for workers with up-to-date knowledge.

But ICT people are still in short supply and this trend will definitely start to limit market expansion in the future if no solution is found.

Recovery on track for 2011

And what of the immediate future? Is the industry on the road to recovery? According to analysts at IDC Adriatics, the Slovenian ICT market is in for another tough year in 2010 which could see the value of the market dropping to its 2007 level. But there is optimism that the economy will pick up by the end of the year and many postponed investment plans will be set in motion, improving the ICT market as a whole.

So it seems that there are brighter times ahead for Slovenian’s 1,800 information technology companies and their 15,000 employees. Certainly challenges remain – not least in finding skilled graduates to carry the industry forward – but it seems that the worst effects of the financial crisis may be over.

What that has meant is growth for one specific branch of IT: outsourcing.

It is the only segment of IT services to have recorded sound growth in the past year. Cost cutting tendencies have prevailed among chief executives and many chief information officers had to respect such decisions and act accordingly.

RRC računalniške storitve d.d.

PUBLIC PROCUREMENT AND EFFICIENT USE OF ENERGY Can IT be of assistance?

We spend 16% of Slovenian GDP through the implementation of public procurement in the EU and 11% of Slovenian GDP in Slovenia itself, which is more than 40% of the country’s overall budget. If we also consider the complexity of the legislation that needs to be adhered to, outlining the procedures that need to be followed for the implementation of public procurement, we see two important requirements which call for the provision of appropriate information support to address these needs.

RRC d.d. offers such information support through its iNAR for public procurement and iPON for companies.

The iNar solution supports the overall process of public procurement from preparation, release and monitoring, to its conclusion and archiving. It offers efficient support to preparatory bodies, authorizing bodies, decision makers, and auditors. With its inherent logic, it indirectly manages procedures, manages deadlines, and produces relevant documentation and reports.

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Through effective monitoring and control, it is possible to reduce energy consumption by up to 20%. Intelligent systems designed to monitor energy use facility control over energy consumption levels, the setting of objectives and monitoring how well these objectives have been achieved in specific segments, as well as the production of reports and archiving.

These systems can be used as quality tools to support decision-making.

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Director Mateja Sajovic, MSc at RRC d.d.

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For over 30 years, with the help of its experienced professionals, RRC d.d. has been successfully developing IT services in various business areas, such as public procurement, payroll, HR and tax systems as well as, recently, in the efficient use of energy. We strive to attain a close partnership with our clients, as this provides a sound basis for the successful conclusion of a project.

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Jadranska 21, p.p. 3407, 1001 Ljubljana T: +386 (0)1 477 85 24, F: +386 (0)1 425 52 29 www.rrc.si, info@rrc.si

22

Keep on Keeping on

Photo: BOBO

Interview: Gregor Golobič

Slovenia is widely regarded as one of the most technologically advanced countries in the region. Gregor Golobič, the nation’s Minister for Science and Education, says it is a reputation which is justified. But he also argues it is one the country must work hard to maintain and enhance.

By Maja Dragović

The possibilities of communication and access to information make the social environment even more transparent and so there is a call for learning, cooperation and new dimensions of democracy.

The Slovenia Times

Technologically speaking, Slovenia used to be the most advanced country in the region. Do you think this is still the case or are other countries further to the south catching up with Slovenia?

No country should sit around and rely on a status that has placed it before others in terms of development – in this or any other field. In an era of globalisation and powerful regional integration, constant attention to maintaining existing competences and developing new ones is required.

[That said] I believe Slovenia is still among the most technologically advanced countries in the region. This can be especially seen in the innovation and penetration of many small and medium-sized companies.

Your ministry’s website says that “accelerated development of the information society will have a significant impact on the competitiveness of the Slovenian economy and society, number of work places with high added value, quality of life and balanced regional development”. What is the government doing to assist the speedy development of such a society?

Most importantly, the government is providing. It provides and creates an appropriate regulatory environment, establishes policies

together with the general public and, last but not least, financially supports innovative projects in this field.

Slovenia pays significant attention to the development of the information society because we believe, as your question suggests, that the use of information and communication technologies contributes to economic progress as well as the development of society in the widest sense. The possibilities of communication and access to information make the social environment even more transparent and so there is a call for learning, cooperation and new dimensions of democracy.

In your opinion, which sector in Slovenia is in biggest need of an IT update?

The answer might surprise you, but I am convinced that it is the public administration sector.

E-government services have been assessed highly and there is reliable infrastructure and excellent support. But a new awareness is required as to what IT support is to the state and the significant consequences its (non-)operation may have, be it to infrastructure or services. The economic crisis resulted in large limitations to the state budget, and experts continually point out the gap

bet ween available funds and the ever-increasing use of ICT capacities.

How does Slovenia compare in terms of IT usage and knowledge to its EU partners?

According to European benchmarks, Slovenia is in the middle among member states or slightly above average [in terms of IT usage]. This applies to various fields of the digital agenda, such as distribution of broadband connections, and services and activities intended for data security and protection.

Knowledge in this field is measured by scientific publications and citations as well as the flow of PhDs to companies. I maintain that, in Slovenia, knowledge in this field is quite strong. In terms of research and development the environments are increasingly mult idiscipli nar y – environments where, in addition to technical knowledge, social sciences and the humanities come to the foreground.

How much has the financial downturn impacted investment in information technology developments?

Quite a lot. Just as the use of ICT in state administration is being exposed to more cogent assessments of its value and costs, so too is it

ICT SPECIAL 23 being assessed within companies.

Unfortunately, we do not have detailed data because investments in ICT, particularly the service part, are hard to isolate from other development investments. However, data from a very general technological invitation to tender indicates that demand from companies in ICT, or in closely connected fields, amounts to as much as 60 percent. That says a lot. We hope that this is not just the result of the crisis, but mostly a result of innovation which is already strongly present in this sector.

Where is the biggest unused potential in the sector that Slovenia can capitalise upon?

This question is a very difficult one, because innovators must always be one step ahead of what is current. Of course I hope that the broadband networks in Slovenia will be completed. As the ministry with the funds from the European cohesion policy, we mostly help rural areas of our geographically diverse country; areas which are generally unattractive for the broadband network market.

This will create the conditions for services that today are still unimaginable.

Is Slovenia producing enough of its own IT experts or does it

need to get help from outside?

Despite having many renowned and successful experts, Slovenia does not have an adequate number of its own experts to be globally competitive in this field. We also need experts from other countries, and we hope that the internationalisation, similarly to the field of higher education, will be stimulated with a fresh impetus. Mobility and cultural diversity are of key importance for a country with a population of only two million.

Prime Minister Borut Pahor has said that he would like to see Slovenia develop its own Silicon Valley – what is your opinion on that?

I understood the Prime Minister’s statement symbolically – let us create an environment which will promote innovation and attract global capital, let us show that we have the know-how and that we are open to new knowledge. The geopolitical position of Slovenia is still our advantage.

As the ministry with the funds from the European cohesion policy, we mostly help rural areas of our geographically diverse country; areas which are generally unattractive for the broadband network market. This will create the conditions for services that today are still unimaginable.

September 2010

24 ICT SPECIAL

Cloud computing

Heads in the Clouds Ask any IT expert to name the latest trend in his or her field and you can expect the same two word response: cloud computing. It’s an approach to IT which many believe could massively cut costs, increase flexibility, and boost return on investment. But what exactly is it? Can it really live up to expectations? And are Slovenian companies getting involved?

By Miran Varga

Good for software too

C IT and other companies have dreamed of ways to increase capacity and add capabilities on the fly, without investing in new infrastructure or training personnel. Now they have it at their disposal.

The Slovenia Times

loud computing is, it’s fair to say, the new big thing in IT. Big not only in the sense of being the new buzzword, but also in the sheer size of the concept. These clouds are supposed to provide the means through which everything, from computing power to computing infrastructure, applications, business processes and new ways of working can be delivered to business or end users as a service. And this is not all; computer clouds are supposed to be available wherever and whenever users need them.

The simplest way of explaining cloud computing is as internet computing. When it comes to hardware, you no longer have a massive computer server in your office but instead link to one online. The analogy of utilities such as water or electricity is often used. We don’t all have generators at home, but somewhere out there is a power plant that produces electricity and we just use it by the flip of a switch. Similar explanation goes for cloud computing. Providers of cloud computing services have big and powerful facilities (usually at non disclosed

Hardware is not the only IT component that resides in the clouds: software can too. “Software as a service” – or SaaS, in which software is deployed over the internet rather than loaded onto an individual computer – is booming. Customer relationship management applications are still the largest segment of the market. But the landscape is changing. Pressured to provide faster and better service capabilities while keeping capital costs at minimum, businesses of all sizes are turning to SaaS for everything from recruitment, hiring, workforce scheduling and payroll applications. Even central enterprise resource planning systems are cloud based nowadays.

In the long term it seems likely that firms will move virtually all of their applications to a hosted environment, including disaster recovery. locations) which can take a lot on the computing and storage burden for several companies.

Clouds are effective

As with all contemporary investments the biggest obstacle in their realisation is cost structure and return on investment figures.

It is here that cloud computing – with its flexibility and cost savings – really gains fans. IT and other companies have dreamed of ways to increase capacity and add capabilities on the fly, without investing in new infrastructure or training personnel. Now they have it at their disposal.

Emboldened by the extreme cost effectiveness of the method, many chief information officers are now focusing on moving server workloads to the clouds, followed by all other parts of IT infrastructure and services. That also requires moving sensitive corporate data to an external data centre beyond companies’ control – which brings up new issues. Cloud providers are putting security at the top of their list of their priorities, but trust on this sensitive issue is hard to gain.

Slovenia in the clouds

Work to ensure Slovenia is at the front of these developments is progressing well. In September 2009, the University of Maribor joined with various partners to establish the first Slovenian Cloud Computing Centre. The Centre provides state-of-the-art cloud infrastructure and comprehensive knowledge and experience. The aim is to increase awareness of this important new IT development. It is already having some success.

“We have observed the most interest for infrastructure (IaaS) and software (SaaS) part, and a little less for platform (PaaS),” explains Professor Matjaž B. Jurič, who runs the Centre. “The important message is that companies have understood that cloud computing is much more than using virtual servers remotely.”

Jurič is confident that the interest will increase further.

“We expect that the interest will grow further in the coming months,” he says. “It seems that the prediction that the impact of cloud computing will be even bigger than the impact of e-business holds true.”

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26 ICT SPECIAL Photo: Dreamstime

ZITex

In the Centre No one could accuse ZITex of having limited ambitions. Its ultimate aim is to increase high tech Slovenian imports from the current six percent to fifteen percent overall. Recently the organisation has begun to establish a series of competence centres – a development it believes will bring it closer than ever to that ambitious target.

By Claire Read

L “If we want to finance development in this area – which is very expensive and takes a long time – there needs to be greater reproducibility but in a market as small as Slovenia’s it is difficult to achieve that. This is why the competitive barriers need to be overcome, and we need to go to bigger markets where there will be plenty of work for everyone.”

ast month, Slovenia’s Economy Minister made a big announcement. Darja Radič revealed her ministry is to dedicate EUR 185m to the creation of development and competence centres. She believes the institutions are fundamental to promoting technological development in Slovenia.

The members of ZITex, an association of export-oriented Slovenian IT companies, would agree with Radič on the value of competence centres. Recently the organisation – which aims to increase the number of Slovenian IT firms present on foreign markets – has taken the decision to create its own such groups.

“ZITex’s 65 members work in different fields,” explains Boštjan Mešič, director of security firm Astec and ZITex member. “We realised that it is difficult to have a unified representation with so many companies with different areas of work, but at the same time we didn’t want to generalise the whole association.”

ZITex’s solution is to establish competence centres – smaller groups of companies working in similar areas. No longer will potential foreign partners in say, egovernment, only meet the whole of ZITex. Instead, they can be re-

ferred straight to the association’s e-government competence centre.

Putting the “e”s in government

In fact, e-government was one of the first centres established. It’s perhaps inevitable when one considers the success Slovenia has already had in this field. Two years ago, the nation was named the second best country in Europe for improving administrative systems in local government. Some firms in the sector are already established outside

the country’s borders – firms like Genis, whose chief executive Stane Štefančič sits on the executive committee of the competence centre.

He says Genis’ experience in Slovenia – the firm was responsible for modernising the country’s Central Population Register, which contains a mass of personal data on individuals resident in the nation – leaves it well placed to get involved in foreign work.

“We can offer EU members and pan European institutions numerous good practices on developing

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Programs are available in Chinese, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Macedonian, Spanish, Slovenian, Thai and Turkish.

“The added value of being part of the EuroCloud organisation is that we will have access to all in Europe who are working in cloud computing services,” explains Dalibor Baškovč of Zeleno.

At the Slovenian level meanwhile, the group plans to hold events, look for sponsors, and gain press coverage for the work of its members. It will also work closely with the other ZITex competence centres: “We act as an integrator engaged in various fields,” explains Baškovč.

Banking on IT

quality electronic services,” he says. “These services improve the efficiency and friendliness of public administrations in accordance with EU strategies.”

Looking to Europe

The proximity of European Union nations makes the zone a natural target for ZITex and its competence centres. The cloud computing centre has particularly strong EU links as it is not only a member of ZITex but also of EuroCloud – a European organisation for cloud computing.

A secure centre

They also work closely with the e-security competence centre,

www.irm.si led by Astec’s Uroš Slak, the sales manager. “There is a natural link,” Slak says, “because secure infrastructure is the backbone of any banking business solution.”

Slak says there is a lot for the centre to achieve: “No Slovenian e-security firm has yet made any concrete breakthrough in a foreign market,” he reflects.

Yet he believes foreign success is crucial for the sector: “The esecurity market in Slovenia is too small,” he says. “If we want to finance development in this area – which is very expensive and takes a long time – there needs to be greater reproducibility but in a market as small as Slovenia’s it is difficult to achieve that. This is why the competitive barriers need to be overcome, and we need to go to bigger markets where there will be plenty of work for everyone.”

“The potential of Slovenian companies is great. Slovenian

Don’t Let Your Guard Down Research shows that more than 80 percent of network security incidents are due to employee errors, unauthorised actions, abuse of rights and negligence of security procedures. Such behaviour can put companies at serious risk.

Risk assessment…

In other words, risk analysis is the first step towards risk reduction and effective information security.

It involves analysing and evaluating the risk that a company may face due to a threat; the analysis is based on a systematic study that determines the likelihood

Slak believes that working together is the way to achieve this foreign success – and, indeed, success closer to home.

“Projects abroad are bigger and so one firm couldn’t do the whole job on its own anyway. And if we join our forces we will be able to participate in development projects financed by Slovenian development resources or by the European Union.

“The best way to participate in such projects is as a group.”

It’s a statement which perfectly sums up the philosophy of ZITex as well as the new centres within it.

• Security Assessment (ethical hacking, penetration testing) A security check of the information technology infrastructure includes scanning of applications, servers and network devices. The security check employs the same tools and methods that hackers use; it is the main source of information needed for the formation of the security strategy.

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Internet rules… but security will always be an issue

In order to ensure business safety, the organisation has the duty to define what should be protected and how – especially in a time of economic downturn and numerous lay-offs, when users with harmful intentions can cause serious business damage.

Better together

• Security Incident and Event Management

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Nowadays, Internet access and mobility play key roles in business. The potential damage they can do, however, has yet not been taken into consideration by all companies. The damage can be accidentally caused by employees if they access the Internet through public networks, lend computers to their family members, copy confidential data on unprotected USB keys, use public e-mail accounts for business e-mails, or if they download and install software from unknown sources. The potential damage to the business can be manifested in a disclosure of classified information, an unauthorised modification of data, disruption of services, a loss of documents, and so on.

companies from the information security field have a number of experienced and recognised experts, numerous solutions developed in Slovenia, as well as references and projects from all government sectors and public administration.”

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Dalibor Baškovč heads the Slovenian EuroCloud

One of those fields will doubtless be e-banking. There is great optimism that Slovenia’s products in this area could prove valuable in other countries. Take IRM Manager, for instance. This portfolio management tool for investment bankers is already used by more or less every bank in Slovenia and IRM general manager Tone Britovšek now has his sights firmly set on international targets. While Britovšek says that a formal competence centre has not yet been realised, he does say that ZITex members from e-banking already cooperate closely.

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IKT SPECIAL 27

September 2010

28 ICT SPECIAL

Interview: Tone Stanovnik

The Importance of Exports It is two years since a group of export-oriented Slovenian IT companies came together to form ZITex. The association is dedicated to increasing overseas opportunities for Slovenian IT firms in export . According to director Tone Stanovnik, a series of developments and actions is helping the association to meet that goal.

By Maja Dragović

is about members or foreign potential partners. Furthermore there are events and delegations, necessary for us to be taken seriously. Smaller firms usually cannot join delegations through official channels, but if we inform them beforehand, those who wish to can come along.

What are the most recent developments at the organisation?

Firstly, we have created a brochure which contains a list of all our companies, their competences, the main contacts and so on. Our aim is to get that brochure into the briefcases of all economic advisers and ambassadors. We also now have very active three or four competence centres.

Smaller companies make up a large proportion of ZIT – we would like to get them in to ZITex. ZITex, together with CCI, Faculty of Economics and the Public Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Entrepreneurship and Foreign Investments (JAPTI), is preparing a so-called Export Academy, which will allow small businesses to learn about theory and practise.

As ZITex we have a lot of interaction with faculties and institutes – the Faculty of Electrical Engineering is a member and the Faculty of Computer and Information Science is about to join.

Competition is quite strong at home, so the ambition to work abroad is very interesting, because this level of competition will be reduced there, the barriers that exist at home will be absent.

The Slovenia Times

How would you describe ZITex? The whole of ZIT [The Association for IT and Telecommunications, part of the Slovenia Chamber of Commerce and Industry], and within it ZITex [the exportfocused division of ZIT], is a kind of a platform, a collection and organisation of events, which allows individual firms to startup export business themselves.

They remain the ones who have to do the work. Currently, we try to organise as many events and distribute as much information as possible on this platform.

Some information is internal, exchanged among members; some

Do you have specific plans to help smaller businesses?

We are thinking about cooperating with Slovenian incubators.

We would like to create a circle, in which like-minded companies would unite, proceed into incubators and start up a worldwide business after that process. Incubators are basically offering offices, less expensive per square metre (yet still not subsidised enough) to help companies to start up, successfully conclude the first deals, issue the first invoices and so on.

They have common offices, a common telephonist etc. Where our incubators are perhaps left wanting is blending between large and

small. Technology Park Brdo already has about 50 such firms, and with the Faculty of Computer and Information Science now moving nearby, all that is missing is to get a few medium or large sized international companies such as Cisco or Microsoft to the area to achieve that blending. Starting up smaller companies is very popular in USA at the moment, especially in the IT field. Many are banking on hitting the global market from their garage, as the founders of Facebook and Twitter did, for example. Our entrepreneurs think they will find a co-investor in the world, that they will be able to start up sooner and faster; they read what is happening in the Silicon Valley and believe they will be showered with money there, so that is their destination. At the moment there are ten companies going to the Sillicon Valley for so-called networking with potential investors (Venture Capitalists). We support them, but things are obviously not so simple.

What about the competition among your members?

Competition is quite strong at home, so the ambition to work abroad is very interesting, because this level of competition will be reduced there, the barriers that exist at home will be absent. In Slovenia, there was a tender for ehealth and there was such fuss, we even made it to the tabloid press.

But if we had a tender for e-health in a broader area, this antagonism would decrease. There have not been any joint projects yet, but I believe that there will be in the future.

What is the competitive advantage of Slovenian companies when looking for business in Eastern Europe?

The countries of the Adriatic region will be joining European Union and they will want to draw European funds through certain EU tenders. But will they know how to draw them? Slovenia has the

ICT SPECIAL 29

knowledge on the subject, so experts will give lectures and there is the idea that we can find potential partners in that area through those lectures and assist them in projects for e-government. Europe expanding into the [Balkan] region is an opportunity for more companies to connect and build not only projects, but also joint ventures or financial junctures.

What about Western Europe?

What advantages can Slovenia present to those markets?

Austrians, for instance, have heavily invested in the Balkan region in recent years but many of their ventures have crashed and burned, perhaps because they don’t understand the region as well as Slovenians do. Slovenians were much more cautious with these investments, especially since they have spent some money in that region in the past. So western European corporations sometimes use Slovenia as their entry to the Balkan markets.

Recently, there was a tender for the Coca-Cola Company for projects in both Slovenia and Austria. My company Špica International obtained the Slovenian project then tried to get the Austrian part as well. We were better than all the Austrian partners, but we did not have a company in Austria and that was the reason for not getting it. So, we are now establishing a firm in Austria and will try more aggressively to attain all subsequent Coca-Cola, Nestle and Spar projects.

What is the overall focus of Zitex and which markets are important?

The priority direction is the “lying Y”; through the Adriatic re-

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gion to the north towards the Russian-speaking countries and to the south towards the Middle East.

We’d like to develop Slovenia as an innovative platform where young and open-minded generations from the region would come to study ICT and establish companies with headquarters in Slovenia and sister companies all over the world.

The priority direction is the “lying Y”; through the Adriatic region to the north towards the Russian- speaking countries and to the south towards the Middle East. We’d like to develop Slovenia as an innovative platform where young and open-minded generations from the region would come to study ICT and establish companies with headquarters in Slovenia and sister companies all over the world

30 ICT SPECIAL

IT in state administration

A Confused Big Brother The use of information technology in Slovenian state administration has come a long way in the past two decades – so far, in fact, that the country is regarded as one of the most advanced in Europe when it comes to e-government. Yet there’s a problem. Different ministries adopted different standards when they computerised. The result is an ongoing problem with intraconnectivity. Can it be solved?

By Jaka Terpinc

T

he computerisation of Slovenian public administration dates back to the days when computers took floppy discs, couldn’t sit on your lap without crushing it, and often had monitors with garish green text. It was the Statistical Office and the Internal Ministry that first jumped aboard the information technology bandwagon when, in the eighties, they used computers to maintain the register of cars and citizens.

From there, progress towards gover n ment computer isat ion was speedy. By 1988 the Republic Executive Council had adopted a plan for ‘informatisation’ of governmental institutions. The next year an ‘advanced’ computer system was introduced to many institutions including the financial ministry, customs and courts, while the statistics office still used most of the system’s resources. By 1991 all state insti-

The E-government’s entry point.

tutions along with basic courts were linked in a network. The same year, coinciding with national independence, the Information Institute was established along with the first internet connection in Slovenia, at the JoĹžef Ĺ tefan Science Institute. Another important milestone was the establishment of the Governmental Centre for Informatics in 1993 and, in the following year, the HKOM network (which is the communication backbone of governmental institutions).

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While all this computerisation greatly improved the performance of state institutions, and their friendliness to citizens, the piecemeal approach to the process has caused problems. State administration can be seen as a collection of huge databases with the software for their manipulation.

Either directly through websites, or through public servants, we interact with it on a daily basis. But, at the moment, making connec-

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14 Days 31 tions between those databases is troublesome.

The Ministry for Public Administration prides itself on a series of achievements which have had some effect on interoperability among different data sources. The new millennium saw the introduction of digital certificates as well as a major unification in architecture, boosting interoperatibility within e-government projects.

These mechanisms had a lasting effect and contributed to an honourable second place in the 2007 European Commission rating of citizen friendly e-governments, as well as to the United Nations Publis Service Award for the Project Evem. Evem is the most advanced ICT project in Slovenia, “a landmark in the integration of complex inter-institutional administrative processes” as put by the Ministry.

This business portal for entrepreneurs links the six largest systems in public administration.

The work is not complete, however. Recently an e-business strategy and action plan were adopted which aim to enhance the so-called horizontal functions in e-business. In addition, an interoperable portal is planned as a central spot for further improvements in the development and promotion of e-business. Technologically, there have been moves to standardised, reusable components, allowing for quicker and more reliable implementation and at the same time making ITCT infrastructure run better at lower costs. From 2001 on all projects are built on a multileveled and web technology, enabling the remote access through a browser and data exchange through web services.

Islands in the Data Stream

Marko Colnar, a secretary with the Ministry of Education and Sport who has devoted much of his effort as an IT expert to information systems of public administration, fears the progress is not enough. His main concern is the long lasting and multi-layered

Marko Colnar is concerned about the lack of common standards in government’s IT system

problem of an absence of common standards. E-government (e-uprava.si) might be a nicely arranged portal, but it leads to different data sources – tax office, customs, the land register – each with its own information system and differently structured database.

In the nineties, a Governmental Centre for Informatics oversaw the ministries and linked them horizontally, but it was disbanded.

“Ministries went their own way,” explains Colnar. “Each one has its own boss who is in charge of its own assets, meaning they can themselves choose the technology providers. As a result we have a multitude of information systems within the government, which are still not connected.”

Colnar says there are some exceptions – the e-vem portal, for instance, which does feature inter-connectible data sources from various ministries – but that in general there is still little improvement. He believes the solution is centralisation.

“In such a small country I’m a supporter of [what is regarded as a] curse word: centralisation. Today, a desktop computer is enough to manage a state register of a two-million country. The problem is organisational. The law on government could solve it.”

To the centre

Colnar agrees that there would be no gain without pain. A thorough, central concept set at a basic level would inevitably hurt certain individuals within the administration as well as the outsourced businesses who provide and maintain the various technologies. Still, he says, rationalisation wouldn’t have to mean layoffs. ”There is a constant lack of IT experts in the country,” he says.

“Some thirty years ago when computers began to take over, people panicked about losing their jobs.

So rather than mentioning any effect on staffing, I would promote lower costs and better service, better solutions and better provision of common projects.”

Asked whether it is possible to know the number of IT experts directly or indirectly employed by governmental institutions, he mentions some 5 percent of 17,000 office staff are IT experts. But he can only estimate. “We could easily come up with a number if there was a centralised information system for all ministries,” he suggests. “For the same reasons we find it difficult to give exact answers to how much money is spent for certain governmental projects.”

It’s a situation which Colnar and many others believe must now change.

Profil d.o.o.

Parmova 53, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia Phone: +386 01 280 54 00 Fax: +386 01 280 54 09 E-mail: profil@profil-group.com www.profil-group.com

By MSc Franc Jamšek, Profil d.o.o.

Unique Slovene software tool for MBO or BSC management technique Experience shows that almost 70% of managers lead their organizations with the Management by Objectives technique. However, this is not yet the case in Slovenia.

Everybody knows that this management technique can be demanding, but there is no suitable alternative. In Slovenia, companies are used to making business plans, but delegating goals in an appropriate way is still not common. Reward management is also based on old-fashioned measures, because trade unions are still somewhat traditional-oriented. In small, privately owned companies, the situation is different, but managers have another problem – there is no time.

The only chance is to implement or to update processes with a tool that will assist you in these complex tasks. Until recently, there was no relevant tool on the market. One excellent new possibility is the Profil Management Tool (PMT) developed by the company Profil, based in Ljubljana. This web-based application gives the manager very easy and simple ways of planning goals. All goals are organized in a tree structure. The application is also useful in cases when a company extensively uses project groups or teams. For each goal or project, it is possible to make a score card, which can be used in reward management. Such an approach is also useful for companies using the Balanced Score Card (BSC) technique. Experience shows that PMT improves the efficiency of management process within organizations.

It facilitates goal planning, distributes the goals to employees and motivates and rewards employees according to achieved results.

PMT is efficient help in developing proper organizational structure and in recognizing processes. Recognition of processes has significant influence on staff planning, job descriptions and valuation. It is also useful in reengineering processes, as it will help you to employ cost reductions because cutbacks in staffing and time.

PMT has everything that HR manager needs (with the exception of payroll). It is very efficient when used in annual reviews, since employee score cards are connected with your plan or your BSC. PMT also has the possibility of combining MBO or BSC management techniques with a values- or competence-based reward system.

Therefore, PMT is an HR information system with all the relevant data the company needs. User rights, administration and access to HR data are defined according to business function and hierarchy. It also contains some additional tools useful in HR administration.

The Profil Management Tool approach saves managers’ time, enabling them to work simply and efficiently. As a web-based application, PMT can be used in any language – a unique feature. It can be also used in the public sector and administration, especially in organizations that use ISO standards or TQM management techniques.

PROFIL is an independent human resources management consultancy, established as a limited company with private capital in 1989. It was the first consulting company in Slovenia and in SE Europe to provide executive search and selection services.

They operate in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro.

The logo says it all: Three smiling faces, representing happy Client, happy Appointee and happy Consultant.

September 2010

32 ICT SPECIAL

Global giants

Big Fish in a Small Pond Discussion of the Slovenian IT sector often centres on its high number of small and medium sized businesses.

Undoubtedly, these firms are the lifeblood of an IT industry considered to be one of the most advanced in the south east Europe. But it is important to remember that this nation is also home to several global IT players.

By Claire Read

T

he story of Microsoft is a quintessentially American one – the tale of the computer whizz kid who took an idea and turned it into a multi-billion dollar corporation. But thirty five years after the company’s foundation, the firm’s presence is a global one. It now has offices in 100 countries – including, since 1994, Slovenia.

According to PR Project Manager Katra Šemrov, the Slovenian branch’s work is part of the wider aims of Microsoft, but nonetheless integral to the corporation’s worldwide vision.

“Microsoft’s mission is to help people and businesses realise their potential through the power of software,” she explains. “Our business in Slovenia reflects the

Cisco praises Slovenia’s quality of maths and science education, emphasising that this is an important base for IT industry The Slovenia Times

wider strategic direction of the company and so we are focused on customer and enterprise software, online services and mobile solutions and services.”

Big potential

Microsoft is far from the only global IT name to have settled in Slovenia. IBM, for instance, has been present in the country for

ICT SPECIAL 33 more than 70 years, with IBM Slovenia officially founded in 1992.

German software and consulting corporation SAP AG is a more recent convert to Slovenia but it too has flourished in the country.

In 1999, the firm dipped its toes into the Slovenian market by establishing a branch. The reaction was so good that expansion was soon required.

“Slovenia was a fast developing market with very high potential for the future,” remembers Simon Kaluža, managing director of the SAP Adriatic Group. “Soon the demands and needs of the market were so big that we decided to open an independent local office.”

It was a similar story for networking leader Cisco. The US firm first entered the Slovenian market in 1991, through a partnership with NIL. By 1998, it had opened its own dedicated office in the country.

Two way respect

Ironically, many of these global leaders have been able to flourish in Slovenia precisely because of the large number of small companies operating.

“In Slovenia, there are very few large companies or global players,” reflects SAP’s Kaluža. “From the global point of view, most Slovenian companies can be seen as medium enterprises. In recent years, we have [therefore] developed product solutions that are focused on the small and medium sized enterprise market. We have enjoyed great feedback on these because they are much better suited to the needs of Slovenian firms.”

Slovenian firms, it seems, are enjoying the support from the global IT giants now in their midst.

But the admiration is very much two way. Šemrov, for instance, says Microsoft has “always been impressed with the Slovenian IT industry”.

Anton Petrič, general manager of Cisco says the country’s workforce

SAP entered Slovenia fairly recently but has been expanding rapidly to meet the increasing demands of the market

is also impressive: “Slovenia has a highly prepared and educated workforce. According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report, Slovenia ranks 19th out of 133 countries on the quality of maths and science education. This is a very important base for the IT industry.”

Pushing forward

Many of the IT giants at home in Slovenia are now working to consolidate the skills of the workforce. Šemrov says Microsoft is promoting digital literacy and basic computer skills among Slovenia’s disadvantaged and unemployed citizens. And the firm is keeping an eye on the future generation too by working with universities. Cisco is doing the same – it opened its first Cisco Networking Academy in 1993 at the University of Ljubljana. Four other academies have since opened in Slovenia.

IBM, meanwhile, has partnered with the University of Maribor to open the first Slovenian Centre for Cloud Computing.

“The Centre enables Slovenian companies to develop and use the most complex service-oriented architecture solutions, e-services and e-contents,” explains Roman Koritnik, General Manager of IBM Slovenia. “And it enables students to conduct research and acquire new skills.”

Perhaps one day those students will create more big fish in the small pond of Slovenian IT.

IBM Slovenia was officially founded in 1992

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www.akton.si September 2010

34 ICT SPECIAL

Interview: Ivica Kranjčevič

Change is Good In March 2010, Ivica Kranjčevič took over as chief executive of Telekom Slovenia. He has taken control at a time of great change; a time when the company is scaling back international acquisitions and trying to complete a long-planned merger with Mobitel. Nonetheless, he believes the group can weather the changes that face it – and come out stronger than ever.

By Maja Dragović

by June 2011. What will the two companies gain from this merger?

Well legally speaking, it will be an acquisition of Mobitel by Telekom Slovenia, but one should not be fooled by this term. We chose this form in order to simplify the procedure – in truth, we will make sure that this is a merger between two operators on a completely equal basis.

The reorganisation of Telekom Slovenia Group is a response to changing market conditions. [We believe] it will be the basis for more effective management of operating costs, provision of comprehensive services to customers, and the realisation of long-term plans.

The reorganisation will be done in the fields of equity, infrastructure, sales and administrative business services of the companies in the group. This covers not only the merger of Telekom Slovenia and Mobitel, but the complete restructuring of our businesses in Slovenia.

We expect [the restructure to lead to] better performance by the whole group due to more efficient management, greater utilisation of synergies, a unified appearance on the market and higher sales and lower costs.

Electronic communications is an industry where guidelines cannot be confined to one country or region. It is a global industry with characteristics and trends that apply everywhere.

The Slovenia Times

You became chief executive of Telekom Slovenia in March 2010.

What is your vision for the company?

I came here with a clear objective and vision: for Telekom Slovenia – at a time of economic change across the group – to enhance business efficiency, achieve excellent business results, and remain a leading player in the Slovenian electronic communications market. The objectives are ambitious – we know they cannot be reached overnight – but they are achievable.

You recently announced that Telekom and Mobitel will merge

The merger has been planned for over four years now. What are the chances it will happen in time?

This is not an option, the merger has to and will happen. Changes must be implemented; there is no doubt about that. Our users and a serious market struggle are forcing us into reorganising. The ultimate goal of the reorganisation is clear – to become resilient, flexible, competitive, advanced, and optimally and rationally organised within the company and the group. A decision on the new organisation has been adopted, and expert groups from various fields created to prepare the final scheme of the new organisation.

Since this is an extremely difficult and a vast project, the reorganisation will take place in phases. The formal launch of the new company is planned for July 2011.

You have a few investments in the region. What are your plans in the Balkans?

Years ago we decided to expand our business abroad so as to ensure the continued growth of the business. This growth will be even more obvious in the future. [That said] the time of rapid expansion into foreign markets is gone, now is the time for consolidation of subsidiaries purchased, and to start seeing returns on invested capital as quickly as possible.

What is happening with your investments in the Balkans at the moment?

In recent years, Telekom Slovenia penetrated the markets of southeast Europe. Purchases in Kosovo and Macedonia have been quite big both financially and otherwise. In the next two or three years, we will mainly focus on these two investments and the definitive consolidation of the two operations. We must make them successful, so that we begin to repay the capital. Ipko is already showing success, so there we are on the right track.

The One is a new, fresh operation, where we still have much work to do. There are also other, smaller investments which we will not neglect.

Where do you see the electronic communications industry in ten years’ time?

In the next ten years the enormous importance of electronic communications will come to the fore more than ever before. Electronic communications is an industry where guidelines cannot be confined to one country or region.

It is a global industry with characteristics and trends that apply everywhere. That applies to broadband and IP technology in fixed and mobile networks, to fixed-mobile convergence and the rise of multimedia services. With all this, a good half-century-old prophecy about the world as a global village is becoming true. There are no more limits – communications control and unite the world.

ICT SPECIAL 35

Mobile industry

Photo: Mobitel

Upwardly Mobile In 2004, the number of mobile phone subscriptions in Slovenia reached the number of its inhabitants. It was a watershed moment; one which might have been expected to slow the explosive growth of this relatively new market.

It didn’t. Mobile uptake in Slovenia has continued to rise and, with providers offering more and more services, it seems set to continue its upward trajectory.

By Claire Read

O

n 31 October 2007 a new company officially entered the Slovenian mobile phone market. Tušmobil was launching in a country which already had more mobiles than people, and one where belts were being tightened thanks to a financial downturn. Yet in October 2008, a year after its entry into the market, the Ljubljana-based company announced that it had acquired 100,000 users in just twelve months. Since then the figure has increased by another 700,000, making it the third larg-

est mobile phone provider in the Balkan nation.

It is a story which illustrates the apparently insatiable appetite Slovenians have for mobile phones – an appetite which a number of companies are indulging.

“With four mobile network operators and three service providers, Slovenia has a highly developed and competitive mobile telephony market,” reflects Nataša Osolnik of Mobitel. “It belongs among the most developed countries in the world in terms of the technology and services on offer.”

Ain’t no mountain high enough

The path to such a position was not an easy one. Slovenia may be small but it is geographically complex, with high mountains and hills as well as many valleys. That

made achieving good mobile coverage challenging and expensive.

It is a challenge which, at the basic level, has now been comprehensively met. Mobitel – which, continued on page 36

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September 2010

36 ICT SPECIAL Photo: Mobitel

bile telephony systems it is increasingly dated. It can easily support voice calls and text messages but its data transfer speed is too slow to comfortably meet the modern expectations of mobiles – expectations which are extensive.

“Mobile phones are no longer simply used for calling and texting,” argues Maja Ilec of Si.mobil.

“People now use them to browse the web, check their e-mails, listen to music, download and use applications, play games and so on. And more and more users are active in social communities such as Facebook and Twitter through mobile access.”

A demanding audience

Even though the number of mobile phones reached the number of Slovenia’s inhabitants, the industry in the country is still expanding

continued from page 35

with a fifty six percent market share, is the country’s largest network operator – offers close to 100 percent coverage with a GSM signal. So too does closest competitor Si.mobil.

While GSM may be the world’s most popular standard for mo-

Both Ilec and Osolnik say that increasing numbers of Slovenians want and expect these advanced services. Businessmen want to be able to send e-mails using their mobiles, to connect to their company intranets while on the go, and to have quick and easy internet access. Young people, meanwhile, expect to be able to download music and watch the latest YouTube sensation wherever there are.

“Mobile users in Slovenia are technically well educated and demanding,” says Mobitel’s Osolnik.

“They require the latest mobile

handsets and are increasingly using new services, especially those dependent on data transfer. There has been a constant increase in the number of data transfer users, and of data transfer itself.”

Slovenia’s mobile companies are rushing to meet these new needs. Mobitel was one of the first in the world to introduce UTMS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), a so called third generation mobile system which allows for ultra-fast data transfer.

Its UTMS network now covers 75 percent of the Slovenian population. Si.mobil, meanwhile, reaches 64 percent with its equivalent network.

It seems foreign companies are also keen to get in on the act. In mid-August, respected newspaper Delo reported that a contract had been signed for the sale of Tušmobil. Rumour has it that parent company Tuš will bag almost EUR 150m from the sale – and that the buyer is one of the biggest telecommunications companies in the European Union.

Whoever the buyer proves to be – names mentioned include Orange, Tele2 and Deutsche Telekom – one thing is sure: they will be gaining a foothold in one of the fastest moving, most demanding mobile markets in the world.

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ICT SPECIAL 37

Investing in the future

An Attractive Investment Option

The information and telecommunications industry offers an array of interesting options for investors.

T

echnology has become an increasingly important part of everyday life. If we compare the time spent on technology ten years ago with the time spent today on the computer, mobile phone and more recently the iPad, this change becomes obvious. It also becomes clear that Moore’s Law – which presumes technological advances are able to double the capabilities of widely used tech devices approximately every two years – is still working. Data shows that individuals are increasingly dependent on technology for work. We are more connected, there is a faster flow of information, faster acquisition of new customers delivering faster growth for successful businesses.

In the information and communication technologies sector this has created big success stories that created immense and speedy shareholder value for investors in companies such as Google, Apple and Baidu.

Technology is the future

Investment in technology solutions will continue, regardless of the prevailing economic environment. In both work and home life, technology makes a person’s

life easier. Business managers are aware that the right technology solution can bring new customers, reduce costs, improve product quality, service and increase productivity – thereby increasing consumer satisfaction, meaning more sales, higher margins and eventually higher stock prices.

The best companies providing state of the art technology can grow faster than companies in other sectors; their business models are scalable. Six years ago, Apple – the company responsible for the iPod, iPhone and iPad – had a market capitalisation of USD 10bn. Today it is over USD 200bn – a return for investors of 20 times.

Dividends will keep on coming

Telecommunication companies, which are a critical infrastructure for a country, tend to be lower risk companies. They may not provide the high growth rates of technology companies but are good investments as they pay regular dividends to shareholders, on average six percent in 2010. Most of them also record a growth in dividends. Although there is little room for future growth in de-

veloped markets, there are still growth opportunities in countries where the penetration of fixed, mobile phones and the internet is still relatively low.

CEOs are cautious

If we look in terms of valuations, the information and communication technology (ICT) sector looks compelling. However, the choice is tactical and fundamental choice needs caution because many companies with high growth are valued at extremely high valuations.

A little lower than projected revenues, margin may have a major impact on stock price alone. Thus, share price movements are often very volatile. It is not however necessary to only invest in household names such as Microsoft.

There are many other companies which although small today may be tomorrow’s story – BlackBerry producer Research in Motion is a case in point.

This is an interesting sector to consider at this time as many companies in the ICT industry have began to accumulate high cash on their balance sheets in recent years. This is an indication of the particular vision of chief executives for the future although they

David Zorman, portfolio manager of the Subfund KD Technology, KD Skladi

are very careful when investing.

There are the first signs of revival of mergers and acquisitions with the recent purchase of McAfee by Intel for USD 6.8bn. It is too early to say whether the trend will continue, whether chief executives will see opportunities to invest, because American consumers will remain conservative in spending their money in the near term.

Play it “safe”

If we look at Cisco’s (the leading supplier of data networking products for the internet) financial results and their worrying outlook for the rest of the year we see that the possibility of a double dip is not out of the equation yet. So having less volatile, big name companies in the portfolio and also companies with stable dividend policies seem the best choice for the remaining of the year. Also some cherry picking among all high growth mid cap companies could add some extra gain to the portfolio. Staying cautious and trying to pick some winners could be the right strategy for the foreseeable future.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Slovenia Times

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September 2010

38 ICT SPECIAL

English language

A Living Language In recent years, the rise of technology has caused massive changes in the English language. Some now fear that text speak and internet talk is killing the language. On the contrary, argues Jeremy Hibbins, Headmaster of the British International School of Ljubljana – English is more alive than ever.

By Jeremy Hibbins

E If I suggested you “Google” something, you would probably know what I meant. Where would you go if I said I’d catch up with you on Facebook? No time to talk now; let’s Skype each other later. Do you have a presence in the blogosphere? Is your webcam online?

nglish is and has always been a living language, and a living language breathes.

It grows, develops, discards and adapts to the fashions and demands of the people who use it.

Often these changes are the result of great works by great writers. In the 16th and 17th century, William Shakespeare helped drive the language forward. In the 20th century, the poet ee cummings did his part to push the boundaries of English usage.

Often, though, changes in language are the result of changes in society. That has certainly been the case in the past twenty years; an era in which the growth of global travel and multilingualism has been coupled by a technological revolution. The result has been a fast growth in the English language – possibly the fastest ever.

English already boasts well in excess of a million words, and it is now estimated that 80 percent of those words are technical and scientific.

From Hoovering to Googling

The rise of technology has seen English adapt in both expected and unexpected ways. Brand names have long been used in English and are sometimes “verbed”: most people know what you mean if you “Hoover” the lounge The Slovenia Times

(using the vacuum cleaner). It therefore comes as no surprise that the modern-day equivalents are often technologically rooted.

If I suggested you “Google” something, you would probably know what I meant. Where would you go if I said I’d catch up with you on Facebook? No time to talk now; let’s Skype each other later. Do you have a presence in the blogosphere? Is your webcam online?

“Wireless” meant a radio to my grandmother: now its usage has shifted to mean wireless internet access.

Technology has also caused us to adapt the way in which we use language. Communication via the internet tends to be short and to the point. You would not put a letter in the post box with a stamp on it just to say “OK, thanks,” but there is no problem doing so by e-mail. The internet includes a myriad communication tools: as well as the estimated two trillion web pages, the net includes chatrooms and instant messaging, social sites, Twitter, blogs, services such as e-banking and telephony, webcams and television. All are instant and global.

is undoubtedly text speak, with its thousands of abbreviations. “I will see you at school – see you later” becomes, for instance, “i wil c u @ skul – c u l8r.”

Some have despaired at what they see as the murder of the English language at the hands of mobiles and computers. But many scholars are more relaxed. In his 2008 book “txtng: the gr8 db8”, renowned linguist David Crystal argued the rise of the text does not represent a threat to the language. And research by Coventry University’s Dr Beverley Plester into the patterns of mobile phone usage among children found that texting may actually be enhancing standards of English. “A lot of textism is written phonetically so we know that it improves children’s phonological awareness, which improves both their reading and writing skills,” she writes. “Texting is just playing with words, and it is fun. It shows a proficiency in language when young people are able to manipulate it in this way.”

It seems our youngsters are perfectly capable of understanding the different contexts in which they write, and know that text short-hand is inappropriate for formal use. A widely-publicised example of a 2003 English exam paper written in text speak was later shown to be a hoax.

Purists may get hot and bothered when writers do not adhere to precious “rules”, but at the final count, language serves communication and expression. A language as flexible and widelyused as English can handle a little rough-and-tumble without feeling threatened – whether that rough and tumble is courtesy of a Shakespeare stanza or an SMS.

Text - a threat to the language?

Text messaging has had a similar impact. The most frequently used language of the current generation

Jeremy Hibbins believes the new technology is enriching the English language

Food

Roasted Potatoes

Pule Estate Dine with Style

Experience

Wellness Balnea

40

roasted potatoes

A Passion for Potatoes

Imagine a typical Sunday lunch in Slovenia. The family is gathered around the table. All that can be heard is the sound of spoons hitting bowls full of beef soup with noodles. Next to the tureen sits a beef steak.

And next to the beef steak is, of course, the staple of all traditional meals in Slovenia – a pile of steaming sautéed potatoes. Times change, but it seems that Slovenia’s love of the potato remains constant. And a special society is dedicated to keeping it that way.

By Polona Cimerman

The dish on previous page(photo) provided by Pub Legende, Ljubljana

It is far to say that Slovenia is a nation of potato lovers. This humble plant is regarded as a meal staple and, in its sautéed incarnation, as a cherished national dish.

In almost every home, inn and restaurant in this Balkan nation, the sound of fat popping as potatoes fry can be heard – many feel that a meal is not a proper one without this potato accompaniment.

It is an amazing turnaround for a nation which was once highly suspicious of this starchy, tuberous crop. Why, Slovenians asked themselves, should they trust a plant which came from overseas? And the edible part of it grew underground! Surely the devil could be at work under the soil?

Royal approval

It was an attitude that changed in the 18th century, thanks to Hapsburg empress Maria Theresa. In 1767, the archduccess issued a decree ordering her subjects to plant potatoes. Slovenians soon found that the plant was easy to grow and the taste of its tuber good. It also helped save lives, ending the famines that had previously been frequent. It had taken a while, but Slovenians finally took the humble potato to their hearts.

The plant has remained there ever since.

The affection is so strong that potatoes have become an important part of language and culture in Slovenia. There are around 140 different regional names for krompir (potato). One of the most popular ways of saying that someone is lucky is to literally say »you have potatoes«.

Celebrating the potato

Many go even further in showing their love for this tubular crop. There are many local holidays and festivals dedicating to the potato but arguably the most enthusiastic celebration comes from the Society for the Recognition of Sautéed Potatoes and Onions as an Independent Dish.

This non-profit organisation has 600 members, all united by their love for sautéed potatoes. All share the belief that the dish should be promoted not only on

The Slovenia Times

The festival of 2009

41 Pražen krompir a.k.a Sautéed Potatoes Sautéed potatoes are a classic Slovenian side dish, which takes little time to prepare and goes well with anything meaty, really. And if, after eating them and licking your plate clean, you decide you absolutely love them, you can join the united sautéed potatoes lovers at the Society for the Recognition of Sautéed Potatoes and Onions as an Individual Dish. menus but also in culture, the economy and tourism. And so apart from being active gastronomically – members must commit to publicly eat sautéed potatoes at least three times a week – the Society supports artistic expressions of sautéed potatoes in forms of poetry and sculptures.

“We are very successful in our endeavours,” argues Boštjan Zrimšek from the Society. “Our national dish is part of the menu at more and more events. And we take part in events all over the world, including countries such as Brazil, Peru and Hawaii.”

Festival time

The Society even has an official anthem, an excerpt of which reveals the traditional recipe for the cherished dish: “We love potatoes, the best ones that grow! Fry them with onions and make a great show!”

Boiling potatoes, cutting them and then frying with chopped onions may be the best known and most widely spread recipe for the dish but it is far from the only one – thanks to the activities of the Society. Since 2001 it has held the World Sautéed Potato and Onions Festival which has helped promote new variations on the dish. They range from those “with olives, plums, whale fat, sausages, boletus, ginger, shrimps; even frog legs and sea algae,” explains Zrimšek.

Recipe For four persons you will need: 6 medium potatoes 1 medium onion, thinly sliced ¼ cup lard (with cracklings) or vegetable oil salt to taste Optional: ½ cup of beef, chicken or vegetable stock finely chopped parsley or chives Wash and boil unpeeled potatoes until tender.

Cool them in cold water, then peel and slice.

In skillet, sauté sliced onion in lard or oil over low heat until soft and light brown. Add potatoes, salt to taste (and add the stock and parsley/chives), stir and fry over low heat for a couple of minutes, five should be enough, until potatoes are lightly browned, turning occasionally. Serve and – enjoy your meal!

The 2009 edition of the event attracted some 7,000 people who between them ate three tons of sautéed potatoes made by 60 teams from around the world. Some came from as far away as Iceland, the United Kingdom, Sweden and the Czech Republic. This year’s festival – the tenth – takes place on 6 September in Ljubljana and Zrimšek says the Society is expecting “a record-breaking number of teams and over 20 thousand visitors.”

Two years ago, the festival was recognised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, which Zrimšek says “proves that our dish is truly worth the attention.”

September 2010

Cars

Gaming

Gadgets

42

The Slovenia Times

Fashion

Cosmetics

Design

43

September 2010

Dine

44 14 Days

wit h St yle Pule Estate Drečji vrh 16, Trebelno Tel: +386 (0)51 373 662 marketing@pule.si www.pule.si Open Wednesday to Saturday: 12pm-10pm Sunday and holidays: 11am-8pm Food type traditional local Price range five-course tasting menu EUR 35 Reservations recommended during weekends

Pule Estate

Trout mousse with horseradish, goat’s cheese, tomatoes

Parsley cream soup

Boletus and chanterelles, milk foam and gnocchi

The Definition of an Idyll

Unforgettable scenery and a multitude of amazing details: there is no doubt that Pule Estate offers its visitors a rich and memorable experience. Superior cuisine is just one part of it – albeit it a very important part.

Southeast Slovenia, or the Dolenjsko as most refer to it, is known for many things: rolling hills with vineyards, hospitable people and some peculiar culinary details. It is those details which create a small but notable distinction from the cooking of the wider region.

Lamb à la Chef

Ginger sorbet with plum pie and cranberries

but under the branches of the terrace’s old walnut tree. The interior, however, is not a lesser experience in any way. The ground floor dining space is only a wall away from the horse stables. It may sound awkward.

But the position gives up just enough of its original purpose to bless you with a sense of the primeval – and yet does not leave you bothered that a horse might also be enjoying a meal just two metres away from you.

It is pretty standard nowadays for restaurant managers to complain about how difficult it is to find a good chef. By luck or by effort Pule is blessed with the right man for the job. Boštjan Kokalj is a man with international experience in classy restaurants, including many years of service on luxury cruisers. He in turn would no doubt tell you how difficult it is to find an assistant. But after you have tasted the masterpieces from his kitchen you will understand he is right.

The Pule Estate, where we experienced those delightful distinctions firsthand, deserves a story of its own. Essentially it is a huge ranch with a prestigious restaurant, all owned by renowned businessman Jože Anderlič. While his ancestors experienced the harshness of rural life, the renovated facility offers nothing but pure pleasure, fun and relaxation.

The bungalows, restaurant and wellness facility are far from the ordinary. The way in which the old farm has been rearranged, with attention to every detail, immediately catches the eye. But even more pleasing visually is the view: once seated at the terrace of the Pule restaurant you find yourself embraced by nothing but the natural environment.

Vegetables spread with rucola pesto awaited us as a snack. Light and fresh, just like the ambience of this special place, it made a perfect companion for the first few moments in which we anticipated the real starter: trout mousse with horseradish, goat’s cheese, and homegrown cherry tomatoes.

The restaurant’s kitchen is disguised inside the walls of former stables, discretely operating behind the backs of guests seated at the terrace.

When the weather is fine, there is of course no reason to sit elsewhere

Homegrown is the key attribute of many ingredients used in the food at Pule. The entire menu is built on specialties made with

Authentic and homegrown

Top choice Fabula Restaurant

Borovška cesta 100, Kranjska Gora Tel: +386 (0)4 589 20 88 info@hitholidays-kg.si www.hitholidays-kg.si Open: daily from noon to 11 pm In Issue 124

BARVE: PANTONE 194 U PANTONE 401 U PANTONE PROCESS BLACK

Shambala, asian restaurant

Križevniška 12, Ljubljana Tel: +386 (0)31 843 833 info@shambala.si, www.shambala.si Open: 11am-11pm, Sunday and holidays closed.

Fresh and spicy experience, selected wines, relaxed atmosphere In Issue 125

Jamski Dvorec

Turizem Kras, Jamska cesta 30, Postojna Tel: +386 (0)5 700 01 00 info@turizem-kras.si www.turizem-kras.si Innovative cuisine inspired by regional and medieval heritage. Excellent wine choice.

In Issue 126 JB logo 4/15/08 4:32 PM Page 1 C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY CMY

K

JB Restaurant

Miklošičeva 17, Ljubljana Tel: +386 (0)1 430 70 70 restavracija.jb@siol.net, www.jb-slo.com Open: Mon – Fri, noon – 10pm Sat, 5pm–11pm In Issue 127

City Restaurant - BTC CITY Ljubljana locally available ingredients – much of them extremely local, hailing as they do from the estate’s own gardens and forests. And when homegrown meets French standards in cream soups, you can prepare for pleasant surprises of the sort we experienced with the exquisite parsley soup. Then it was time for the mushrooms. Boletus and chanterelles with milk foam and “pipči”; a Dolenjsko modification of the side dish we know as gnocchi.

The series of starters prepared us for the restaurant specialty: Lamb à la Chef with dumplings. We can’t tell you the secret ingredients, but we can say that this is a house specialty with good reason. The many guests who come to the restaurant just on the strength this dish would doubtless agree.

It was then time for desert, with the ginger sorbet and plum pie with cranberries proving to be another unique and authentic dish.

When it came to choosing wine to accompany our meal, we plumped for a light and tasty Movia’s Rebula 2008. Despite the option to choose wines which corresponded to particular dishes, we decided to stick to our initial choice of drink. A mistake? Perhaps.

Pule offers an incredible 180 selected wines from all continents (except Antarctica). But we were mindful of the relatively long drive back to Ljubljana and the need to remain clear headed. It was a small sacrifice to enjoy a meal at this wonderful place – as was the hour drive. The following months will be a nice time to return. Along with the colourful scenery, the menu shifts to its autumn mood, when pumpkins, chestnuts and game take over.

Poslovna stolpnica, 13th floor, Šmartinska 140, Ljubljana Tel.: +386 (0)1 585 19 97 www.btc-city.com Restaurant open: Mon-Fri, 11am – 4pm Bar open: Mon-Fri, 7.30am – 6pm

Composite

In Issue 128

Castle Otočec Restaurant

Grajska cesta 2, Otočec Tel.: + 386 (0)7 384 89 00 booking.otocec@terme-krka.si www.terme-krka.si www.castle-otocec.com Open: Every day until midnight In Issue 129

Barka Restaurant - St.Bernardin - Portorož Obala 2, Portorož Tel: +386 (0)5 695 30 08 restavracija.barka@h-bernardin.si www.h-bernardin.si Restaurant with selected fish dishes Open: 11am – 11pm

In Issue 130

Vila Prešeren

Veslaška promenada 14, Bled Tel: +386 (0)4 575 25 10 vilapreseren@sportinaresorts.si Open: 11am – 11pm In Issue 131

Pule Estate

Drečji vrh 16, Trebelno Tel: +386 (0)7 34 99 700, (0)51 373 662 marketing@pule.si, www.pule.si Open: Wed-Sat: 12am-10pm, Sun: 11am-8pm; Pule Estate is also available for rental Traditional Slovene cuisine with other culinary delights

In Issue 132

46

It was a warm July morning and I was having a lousy start to the day. Stress seemed to be descending on me from every angle. It was so bad I found myself wondering whether I’d be best off going back to bed.

Wellness

experience

Balnea

The Slovenia Times

A Perfect Escape Wellness Balnea in the beautiful village of Dolenjske Toplice promises its visitors an array of relaxing treatments – from saunas and massages to thermal water pools. Could one of their reflexology massages lift Maja Dragović out of a particularly bad case of the grumps?

I was still grumpy as I drove off to Dolenjske Toplice for a visit to the Wellness Balnea spa.

I was booked for a foot massage there, something which should have been a real treat for someone as devoted to reflexology as I am. But I found my foul mood seeping through. Every other time I’ve had a foot massage it’s been given in a country with a long tradition of reflexology practice. I grumpily wondered whether I was about to experience a poor imitation of the real thing.

Wonderful location

My mood improved somewhat as I realised just how short and sweet the drive to Dolenjske Toplice would be – the town is only an hour from Ljubljana and most of the trip is on the motorway. When I arrived my spirits were lifted further. The place is a secluded little paradise, totally in tune with nature. And the building itself was way beyond my expectations. I thought I was visiting a hotel with a spa attached to it. But Wellness Balnea feels more like a spa which happens to have a hotel attached – with its wooden décor, its mellow scents, and its utter serenity, the place feels like a traditional Finnish spa.

I arrived a bit early so I had a walk around the lobby. I say lobby, but it feels more like an art gallery. Drawings depicting local life, all by different artists using different techniques, are exhibited throughout the hotel – including the rooms. What caught my attention most were the drawings of differently shaped faces above the reception desk. I smiled at this parody of what we usually see above hotel receptions – clocks showing the different times in global capitals.

47

Down to business

With my wander round the lobby complete, I headed to the outside café to meet my reflexologist. In the gardens I came across another stunning piece of art: a sculpture of English poet John Donne. The work is captivating – it looks like a plaster mould of a face and yet is constructed entirely of wires.

Jovanka, my reflexologist, may have been young, but she knew what she was talking about. We chatted about the massage and what I should expect. Essentially, reflexology involves applying pressure to the feet and/or hands with specific thumb, finger and hand techniques.

The idea is that the body has a system of zones and reflex areas which reflect an image of the body on the feet and hands. Applying pressure to these areas is therefore meant to effect a physical change on the wider body.

Some of the treatments you can have in Balnea ...

Face and Body care

Mission accomplished

After we’d finished chatting, we walked together through the 150 metre-long glass corridor which leads to the building’s dedicated spa.

The massage room was immediately soothing, with minimalist decoration and low-volume relaxing music. I took a seat and Jovanka got to work. I’d opted for a general massage which meant that equal pressure was applied to all points on my feet. But it’s possible to opt for a more specific treatment if you want to.

A mixture of cream and oil is applied to your feet for the massage. Knowing what to expect at this point is always a bit of a gamble – I’ve sometimes had substances which have felt far too dry, others far too greasy. No such worries this time: Jovanka’s mixture was absolutely perfect.

As the massage progressed to the sides of my feet, Jovanka told me that she could tell I didn’t take enough liquid. She’s spot on – I don’t. But I will now!

Basic facial care / 40 min, EUR 32 Natural herbal treatment / 80 min, EUR 54 After sun care / 60 min, EUR 40 Jovanka, the spa’s reflexologist, uses the perfect combination of oil and cream for the massage

With that vow made, it was time to head home. As I made the return trip to Ljubljana, I couldn’t quite believe how much my mood had been lifted. The stresses of that morning seemed further away than Australia.

I now fully understand why Balnea is a favoured hideout for those living in the public eye: it’s a secluded, wonderfully relaxing place. But it offers something for everyone – from relaxing treatments for a stressed out Mum like me to physiotherapy for someone who has suffered an injury to fun activities for friends and partners.

As I reached my front door, I suspected the stresses were about to start again. But with my mood lifted thanks to Wellness Balnea, I was more than ready to face them.

Wrinkle smoothing with Pelleve radiofrequency Face, EUR 85 Peeling / 20 min, EUR 15 Massages Classical massage – partial / 20 min, EUR 27 Rejuvenating reflexotherapy / 50 min, EUR 39 Anti-stress aromatherapy / 40 min, EUR 42 Pampering for two Jasmine bath with jasmine tea / 60 min, EUR 45

www.terme-krka.si

September 2010

Ljubljana tourist card

The Capital Under Green Canopies

Ljubljana’s official year of reading, books, printed word and everything literary has brought a series of events unfolding throughout the capital, some of them happening under the treetops and clear blue sky.

By Vesna Paradiž

• free admission to the main sights • free public transport, boat ride, funicular, tourist train • other attractive free services 24 hours: € 23.00 • 48 hours: € 30.00 • 72 hours: € 35.00

mposite

Sales outlets: • Tourist Information Centres and major hotels

www.visitljubljana.si

Banks of Bric-a-Brac

Weekends are vibrant on the banks of the Ljubljanica River with art and antique exhibitions. Enjoy a leisurely ramble through the Art and Flea Market and find yourself a bit of bric-a-brac.

By Vesna Paradiž Some would easily dismiss the idea of getting up early on the weekends, on those rare free days when bed looks temptingly attractive even around midday. But, if you happen to find a will and a way, the centre of Ljubljana is where you should spend those free mornings.

Every Saturday, Ljubljana attracts visitors with its colourful Art and Crafts Market on the banks of the Ljubljanica River. At what could be called Ljubljana’s Montmartre, various artists and craftsmen exhibit and sell their products and – from time to time – host free creative workshops for young people (or young at heart).

The market, which has been running from May to October for eight years every Saturday between 9 am and 4 pm, features the works of non-mainstream painters, sculptors, ceramics artists and designers, offering a variety of unusual things, such as unique clothing and accessories, imaginatively shaped and eco-friendly wooden toys, jewellery made from silver plated wire and semiThe Slovenia Times

Since April, Ljubljana has been the Unesco’s World Book Capital and it will remain so until April of next year. In this context, summer has brought two events aimed at fostering reading, developing reading culture and improving the accessibility of books, as well as presenting literary genres and world literatures.

The first is the so called “Knjižnica pod krošnjami” (meaning “the library under the treetops”), a handy collection of books, newspapers and magazines for everyone to peruse. Equipped with chairs and benches to rest your legs while browsing through the pages, the six reading islands are distinguished by the variety of reading material.

Tivoli Park is a general unit where everyone can find a volume of choice; Ljubljana Castle holds mostly publications interesting to tourists; the Botanic Garden serves as an island for poetry lovers and Trnovski pristan as a delight for students and humanists. All these libraries are open on weekends between 10 am and 8 pm. In addition, there are two more units working during the week: Breg (the Ljubljanica embank-

ment) is offering European books on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays until 8 pm, while Park Tabor has books for the elderly and is open on the same days until 3 pm and until 8 pm on Sundays.

Take a Ride with a Book

The second event is provided by Bunker, a non-profit institution for the implementation and organization of cultural events. They created the idea of the project “Proga 10: KNJIGA” (Route 10: BOOK), in which 23 bus stations were furnished with special book shelves, offering books on loan to users of Ljubljana’s public transport and all passersby from 22 June until the end of September. Proga 10 is an open air library where you can borrow books and return them after reading; it is also a test of the establishment of an open space library without control codes, which reflects the idea of non-monetary exchange of goods. People’s responses will be monitored and recorded in the form of documentary film footage and photographs, later displayed to all.

precious stones using bobbin lace-making techniques, porcelain and ceramic products and more.

The Art Market’s goal is to enable creators to present themselves and attain recognition, to revive the town centre with cultural and art attractions and events, and to contribute to the uniqueness of Slovenia. The project is upgraded each year with new content and exhibitors who are looking forward to your visit.

Mingling With History

Sundays are usually less vibrant, the streets are quiet and peaceful and you might wonder where have all the people disappeared, but the answer is obvious once you hit the Ljubljanica embankment and its flea market. Here they are, browsing through the stalls with antiques, art pieces, furniture, kitchenware, curious items and memorabilia from the former Yugoslavia or even the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, such as coins, banknotes, stamps, medals, uniforms etc. Some say

it is like walking through an open-air museum; it is well worth a visit on a sunny Sunday morning.

The fair for collectors and antique lovers who want to enrich their collection

with new exhibits is also an enjoyable event for regular town strollers, who are sight-seeing, meeting friends for a chat or simply remembering old times in this pleasant atmosphere.

Photo: www.slovenia.info, Tomo Jeseničnik

Tourism and Biodiversity “Tourism and Biodiversity”, this year’s theme of World Tourism Day, is closely linked to the international year of biodiversity, which aims to raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity for humanity and life on Earth.

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Biodiversity in Slovenia Slovenia ranks among the countries with the highest biodiversity in the European Union. Some scientists have even labelled it as one of the “hot spots” of the continent. A relatively small space interlinks effects of the Alps, the Dinarides, the Mediterranean and the Pannonian Basin. All of this is reflected in the rugged surface, diverse geological structure, rapidly varying climate and, of course, the richness of flora and fauna. We indirectly experience Slovenia’s biodiversity by recognizing the variety of the landscape; because of the rational use of agriculture and for-

www.slovenia.info

estry in the past, our ancestors have preserved the essential features of the natural base.

Around 22,000 plant and animal species have been recorded Slovenia, but it is estimated that at least 50,000 to 120,000 actually exist. Large numbers of native and mostly native species stand out. There are 850 such species, of which more than 300 live in the underworld of Slovenia’s many caves.

We are specifically accountable for the survival of such endemic species, because they do not live anywhere else.

Slovenia is also home to a large number of animal and plant species that are endangered in Europe or on the verge of becoming so; therefore, we specifically protect them. The Natura 2000 areas are set deliberately for their protection; 36% of Slovenia’s surface is protected in this way –the highest proportion in Europe.

Slovenia’s biodiversity is particularly threatened by the changing of the natural habitat and the impact of nonnative invasive species. Direct threats – such as the collecting, harvesting, fishing, hunting and trading of endangered species – are less impor tant causes of endangerment. This is also the result of the growing awareness of the importance of biodiversity among Slovenians.

Photo: www.slovenia.info

T

he year coincides with the agreed objectives of governments in 2002 to achieve a significant reduction in the level of biodiversity loss by 2010. World Tourism Day 2010 emphasises the respect for the concepts of sustainable development. Tourism is dependent on a healthy natural environment and adhering to the criteria of sustainable development can contribute to its preservation.

50 SOCIETY

Interview: Andreja Kračun

Big Steps for Fundraising In mid-September, Maribor’s walking paths will once again be dominated by a group of fundraisers. They will be taking part in the third annual Koraki za Korakce (“Big Steps for Small Steps”) charity walk. It is an event which has allowed Andreja Kračun to fulfil a long-held ambition – to raise money for disabled children through events accessible to all.

By Maja Dragović Kangljer and our sponsors and donors.

What inspired you to set up Koraki za Korakce?

I had wanted to set up a charity organisation in my hometown of Maribor for some time. I envisaged it as a charity that would primarily help children with special needs.

Then, in 2000, my husband became Slovenia’s ambassador to the United States. Two weeks after arriving in America, we attended a charity march through the streets of Washington. I liked the idea of the march immediately. Basically the event was about socialising and did not require a lot of physical effort. People were chatting and enjoying themselves.

When did the first Koraki za Korakce walk take place?

The first walk was in 2007 and was supported by the president’s wife Mrs Barbara Miklic Turk. It was very well received. We have also had great support from the Maribor mayor, Mr Francis

Who takes part in the walk?

Anyone can participate in the charity walk – families can come with prams, and with grandparents. We also prepare a special path for people with disabilities.

I am proud we have an event in which anyone, of any age, and of any physical capability can participate. It is a joy to see so many people enjoying the most beautiful walking paths in Maribor.

Why did you decide to focus on helping children?

Children are at the beginning of their lives, and there will always be obstacles ahead as they grow up. For children with disabilities, overcoming those obstacles is harder. We want to help make the path a bit easier, providing facilities to make life better.

Though children are our priority, we also want to help adults who have become disabled, either through illness or injury.

Koraki za Korakce started as a walk through Maribor. In what other ways do you plan to raise funds for the charity?

In addition to the walk, which takes place every September, we

are now organising other fundraising events. Back in April we put on a concert at the National Theatre in Maribor with [famous Slovenian choir] Perpetuum Jazzile. The event was an enormous success – tickets sold out several weeks before the concert.

What are the plans for the short and longer term future?

This year’s charity walk is coming up – it takes place in Maribor on 18 September. It will begin with “Musical Steps”, when young musicians will play. A few minutes before the walk starts we

will have a draw, with the lucky winner walking away with BMX freestyle bicycle and a helmet.

And this year’s walk will see us introduce our new mascot Miha Korakec.

Immediately after the walk, we will prepare for a trip to Ireland, where we will participate in the international charity bazaar in Dublin – we will be selling Slovenian products. In spring 2011 we will again organise a charity concert, and in September 2011 we will be organising our fourth charity walk through the streets of Maribor.

3. traditional charity walk KORAKI ZA KORAKCE

BIG STEPS FOR LITTLE STEPS Saturday 18. September 2010 at 9.30 am Maribor, Trg svobode free advert

At the recreational fun gathering of a walk through the streets of Maribor and City Park participants will donate their steps to:

The walk is a charity event organised by the Charity organisation KORAKI ZA KORAKCE. Registration costs 10 €. For children up to 10 years registration is free. For more information and to The Slovenia Times register go to www.korakizakorakce.si. The walk will take place regardless of weather conditions.

media sponsor

OŠ Janka Padežnika Maribor, for the pupils of the primary school Centre for Hearing and Speech Maribor and for the Centre for Handicapped Children and Centre for Corrective Gymnastics within the framework of the HealthCare centre dr. Adolf Drolc Maribor

EVENTS 51

Dance

Seeing Through Touch Touch is usually our first contact and last contact with the world – and yet most of us give it little thought.

Dancer Branko Potočan, on the other hand, is dedicating himself to the exploration of this special sense. Along with fellow dancers and performers, including wheelchair user Mija Pungeršič, his new show aims to explore the complicated issue of tactile language.

By Petra Milič

I

t was a book which provided the first inspiration for a new show by one of Slovenia’s leading contemporary dancers. As Branko Potočan read Mirt Komel’s »An Attempt of a Touch« – which looks at touching from a philosophical and theoretical basis – he became fascinated. Why, he began to wonder, was touching avoided in some cultures but positively embraced in others? Why do we feel it appropriate to touch some people but not others? When it is appropriate to reach out to our fellow humans in this way?

But it was when he worked with disabled people on a performance that the idea for “Seeing Through Touch” – which premiered this month at Cankarjev Dom – was truly born. Realising that often there is confusion over how to touch someone in a wheelchair, Potočan decided that disabled performers should be included in his exploration of tactile language.

And so he quickly invited Mija Pungeršič, who uses a wheelchair, to join him in the performance. »We are defining touch far and deep« explains Potočan. »[Doing so] enables us to produce an output on which we can build further, develop new things, discover new spheres or just learn about ourselves and the limits we have.«

Moving to touch

Potočan has spent his career developing and discovering new spheres. Fascinated from an ear-

ly age by movement, he attended the earliest contemporary dance workshops and seminars held in Slovenia. »What always fascinated me was movement as a means of expression,« he explains. »Going back to my childhood years, movement was always my most comfortable way of expressing myself. Through it, my best experiences were created. Every child likes to play and play is all about movement.« By the eighties, when the breakdance craze hit, he had already established Gumiflex – his own breakdance troupe. In 1986 he

met with dancers of Plesni teater Ljubljana, the first and only professional contemporary dance group in Slovenia at the time. After four years of dancing with the group, Potočan left for Belgium where he became a member of the Belgium group Ultima Vez, led

by Wim Vandekeybus. He danced with this group for the next three years, touring the world: Ultima Vez performance in Japan, America, Canada, Spain, Portugal, Britain, Finland, Denmark, Yugoslavia and more.

Four Klor

The experience left Potočan ready to form his own group.

The result was Four Klor, formed in 1994. The name has multiple explanations. Firstly, the group has four members: Potočan, Jana Menger, Dušan Teropšič and Sebastjan Starić who all often incorporate traditional, national or cultural patterns in their work.

And in Hrastnik, where they were working at the time, there is a chemical plant with lots of chloride (klor).

Potočan describes Four Klor as physical theatre group, characterised by organic, natural movement defined by choreography.

Their aim is to explore what it means to be human. The members

often use props such as ropes or steel circles/wheels hanging from the ceiling in their shows to go beyond what is usually possible for a human. »Usually there is a general idea, which is mostly represented in the performance, it can be an object that visually and physically defines the whole piece«, explains Potočan. »Every member of the group has complete freedom to go anywhere completely different and if that goes with the general idea, it’s OK.« It is a spirit which has seen the group achieve great success. In the past fifteen years, Four Klor have been invited to perform all around Europe: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Belgium, Austria, Italy, Romania, the former Yugoslavia and so on.

They have also received numerous national and international awards for their work.

Potočan hopes that their latest piece will continue this track record of success – and make audiences think. »What I would like, is this new piece to be treated in the same way [as others], but also to be able to see the unconventionality or originality of it at the very beginning. I want situations which are atypical for our lives to produce thinking with the audience.« September 2010

year’s Rock in Opposition festival in France.

Punk

Jello Biafra and The Guantanamo School of Medicine Sep 8, 9pm, Gala hala, Ljubljana, EUR 18–22

BUY TICKETS ONLINE: www.eventim.si

BY PHONE: 01 / 420 50 00

OTHER WEBSITE TO BUY TICKETS: vv www.eventim.si, www.vstopnice.com, www.koncerti.net, www.napovednik.com

Jello Biafra is best known as the leader of the legendary punk rockers Dead Kennedys from the United States, where he spread the word of political revolution. His stance has not changed much over the years, as he still holds true to his old beliefs. If you want a taste of some real punk, you shouldn’t miss this evening session with one of the most renowned and respected names of the whole punk scene.

PLACES TO BUY TICKETS

ONY

Studio Maja Skyscraper

Literary evening

Jazz

Suffering And Love

Full Blast

d_en.indd 1 Sep

8, 8pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, no admission

Sep 8, 11pm, Klub Gromka, Ljubljana

Suffering And Love is a literary evening with the author Norayr Adalyan on the occasion of the Slovenian translation of his novel.

Modern Armenian writer Norayr Adalyan’s Phantom novel will be published in Slovenian in 2010.

Suffering and Love narrates the sufferings of a judge, who feels love for the accused of a murder.

The evening will be moderated by Matej Bogataj.

Full Blast is a project by saxophone and clarinet player Peter Brötzmann, one of the biggest names in European jazz. This project incorporates Brötzmann’s love of jazz and combines it with his natural instincts for experimentation – including such elements as punk, noise, hard rock and extreme metal. His efforts in this direction have been very noticeable, as can be seen by his inclusion in the line-up of this

Literature

Heat, How to Stop the Planet from Burning?

26.8.10 13:19

Sep 8, 6pm, Kino Šiška, Ljubljana, no admission George Monbiot is known as a radical ecologist, who has created quite a stir with his book Heat, How to Stop the Planet from Burning.

On this occasion Kino Šiška will hold a presentation of the Slovene translation of this book. The special guest of the evening will be none other than the author himself, who will be talking to Luka

Omladič and will present his ideas on avoiding unpleasant climatic changes.

Opera

Manon Lescaut Sep 9–Sep 10, 7.30pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 16–30 Puccini’s opera libretto is based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by A. Prevost. It was cobbled together by several other authors and the composer himself.

Although Ricordi discouraged Puccini when he decided to rewrite Prévost’s novel, the composer could not be talked out of it.

“Manon is a heroine I sincerely believe in, that is why I am convinced that my opera is going to be a success. Why not present two operas about her? Massenet experiences her as French and I as Italian – with a fatal passion,” explained Puccini. The opera was an incredible success from the start, thus becoming the first work to finally strengthen Puccini’s reputation.

Performance

Seeing Through Touch Sep 9–Sep 10 and Sep 18, 8pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 10–18

EVENTS 53 In the present-day world marked by omnipresent visualization, touch is often overlooked. Yet touch is our first contact with the world, often also our last. So what is touch?

What happens when eyes meet and touch? And what happens when one contacts a body that seems flawed to an undiscerning viewer, bearing the stigma we attach to physically disabled people? Touching through sight and seeing through touch – where lies the cross-section that opens the field of social concern? The performance addresses the issue of tactile language: where, why, how and whom we do – or do not – touch.

Pop

Rhythm of Youth Sep 10, Kolosej (BTC City), Ljubljana, no admission This will be the fourth edition of this party. After last year’s successful performance by female vocalist September, this year will feature an even bigger star, the Swedish singer Agnes, who has had amazing chart success with hits like Release Me, I Need You Now and On & On. Other performers include Dan D,

Concert of

The Slovenia Times Recommends

Medeski Martin & Wood The first club appearance of the old friends of groove-jazz avant-garde fans.

Having performed special projects to enthusiastic audiences of Ljubljana’s Jazz Festival in 2006, together with the guitarist John Scofield and last year by reinterpreting Zorn’s Book of Angels – this year Medeski Martin & Wood are back in their basic trio line-up and with their traditional repertoire featuring legendary albums like ShackMan, The Dropper, End Of The World Party, Combustication and others.

John Medeski, Billy Martin, and Chris Wood were looking to create music that reflected who they were, individually and collectively.

The trio began experimenting with contemporary hiphop beats that could swing as hard as jazz rhythms, yet remained essentially simple and propulsive, giving the musicians ample room to create hypnotic textures and sounds that were brimming with both improvisation and harmony. “In the beginning, as it is now, we went by gut instinct,” says Wood. “We have a natural

connection between us, as people and as musicians, and we just let things flow in whatever direction they went.”

Medeski Martin and Wood live in our world, playing music that reflects their surroundings and communities. At the same time, they are a small world unto themselves, where creativity and spontaneity are honored, revered, and encouraged. And the world-at-large is a much better place for it.

Wednesday, 29. September at 9pm, Kino Šiška

South Indian Classical Music

Chitravina N. Ravikiran www.ravikiranmusic.com

Accompanied by:

Lasanthi Manaranjanie Kalinga Dona (violin) Carlos Yoder (tabla)

9th Oct 2010 at 7pm City Museum of Ljubljana Tickets available from 20th Sep at City Museum of Ljubljana, Gosposka 15: 15 EUR in presale, 18 EUR on the day of the concert More information: The Slovenia Times: marketing@sloveniatimes.com t: 00 386 41 335 166

Organizers

Association of Indian Slovenian Friendship

Partner

Embassy of India Ljubljana

September 2010

54 EVENTS Big Foot Mama, Omar Naber & Kareem, Samuel Lucas, Billysi, April, Tangels, E.V.A., November 1 and Rock Shock. The festival will be hosted by Vid Valič and Ota Roš. The party will already begin in the early afternoon with various acrobatic, cultural and entertainment events.

attention was given to the last album Coco, with masterpieces like ‘Matilda’, ‘Hotel Axos’ and ‘Libella Swing’. His concerts are always a treat because of the great band dynamics and the rapport between the musicians and the audience.

Dance

Exhibition

Displaced Body

Under the Bull’s Head

Sep 14 and Sep 15, 9pm, Kino Šiška, Ljubljana, EUR 15–20

Photographic exhibition Swing

Dragomil Bole: Oblio

Parov Stelar Band

Sep 13–Oct 17, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, no admission

Sep 11, 9pm, Kino Šiška, Ljubljana, EUR 15–20

Marcus Füreder – Parov Stelar is an accomplished Austrian composer, who has spent the last decade creating subtle and eclectic music, mostly merging jazz, swing and electronic. Parov Stelar started doing swing when there was still no hint of its revival. During these last years he has put out a lot of quality material. The most

The Slovenia Times

Bole considers photography a significant means of expression for dwelling on the social and spatial dimensions of a crowd, and the visual messages and integration of one’s own image into photographic interpretation. Borrowing its name from a boy named Oblio, the main character in the animated film The Point (Fred Wolf, 1971), the Oblio project was devised in 1985 and remains a work in progress. It is a continuation of the Ideoplastics – Visions of Ideomanias series created between 1985 and 1986.

The dancing body is caught in a web: the view of the audience tries to determine it and catch its image..The body rebels against this with dancing, an inner look that leads the dance and follows itself in movement. In between this are the eyes of the dancer, a subjective view of the body in motion, which tries to catch its fragments and details. The performance Razmeščeno telo (Displaced Body) is searching for the unity of the body and tries to find its full potential.

Sep 15–Nov 7, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 2–4 The exhibition, unprecedented in our country, aims at presenting a generation of male and female artists aged eighty and over who, despite their advanced age, have displayed an admirable creative vigor and maintained an outstanding artistic quality. Their extensive oeuvres evince the history of Slovenian fine art after the Second World War, from the establishment of the Ljubljana Academy of Fine Arts, where most of them studied, until the present.

Exhibited will be works marking not only the climaxes of their opuses, but mostly those providing a basis for their current artistic endeavors.

Slovenian Philharmonic Subscription Series 10/11

Comedy

Notpadu Lajv Sep 18, 8pm, Stožice Stadium , EUR 19

Subscriptions to the Blue, Orange and Vocal Series from 7th till 10 th September 2010 between 10.00 am - 1.00 pm and 3.00 pm - 6.00 pm at the Slovenian Philharmonic, Kongresni trg 10, Ljubljana. www.filharmonija.si

Contemporary theatre festival

17th Ex Ponto Festival Sep 15–Sep 22, various venues, Ljubljana The Ex Ponto festival presents contemporary theatre productions with a particular emphasis on those dealing with socially relevant themes. Ex Ponto is considered to be one of the major international theatre festivals on the Slovenian cultural scene. It is accompanied by a program of exhibitions, dance performances, multimedia projects, film screenings, concerts, and other events. The theme of the 2010 edition of the festival is taboos and their implications for people’s intimate and social lives.

Charity concert

Echoes of the Sounds to Be Sep 17, 7pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 35 The concert Echoes of the Sounds to Be is organized by the Centre for Autism. The proceeds from the concert will go into the development of people with autism. The performance will include pianist Derek Paravicini, who is an internationally renowned pianist who has autism and is blind. Despite his young age, he is considered a piano genius. He can play two pianos at once and has absolute pitch. He has even been given the nickname “the human iPod.”

Theatre

The Dice Man Sep 18, 6pm and 10pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 15–20 The performance is based on the eponymous cult novel by Luke

Rhinehardt, whose provocative ideas have given him the status of one of the most influential authors of late. Luke Rhinehardt, the acknowledged psychiatrist, one day realizes that he’s fallen into the captivity of quotidian routine and has been carried away by mechanical roles. Fatigued by it, he decides to break away from it all and to leave his fortune to chance. To be more exact, to dice: he is increasingly possessed by the dice and his life turns into a schizophrenic maze…

Electronic

The country’s most popular comedy duo Lado Bizovičar and Jurij Zrnec are taking their Sunday TV show to a whole new level as performing in front of a massive audience at Stožice Stadium. The show will feature a number of celebrity guests in what is expected to be the comedy show of yet unseen proportions. Slovene language (in all its variety).

Ethno

Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra Sep 19, 9pm, Križanke, Ljubljana, EUR 35

Erick Morillo Sep 18, 11pm, Ambasada Gavioli, Izola, EUR 22–30 Erick Morillo is a ColombianAmerican DJ, music producer and record label owner. Having produced under a number of pseudonyms, including Ministers De la Funk, The Dronez, RAW, Smooth Touch, RBM, Deep Soul, Club Ultimate and Li’l Mo Ying Yang, Morillo is best known for his international work in house music, in particular for the label Strictly Rhythm, and the 1993 hit “I Like to Move It”, which he produced under the pseudonym Reel 2 Real, and which was featured in commercials, movies and ringtones. His label Subliminal Records is one of the most renowned record labels on the house scene, particularly in the US.

To most people Emir Kusturica is known as a fabulous film director, with such classics as Time of the Gypsies; Arizona Dream; Underground; Black Cat, White Cat; Super 8 Stories, Life is Beautiful, etc. Emir has been a long time associate and friend of Nele Karaljić, the ex member of Zabranjeno Pušenje, a cult Bosnian band. After some frictions within the band, Karaljić formed The No Smoking Orchestra (No Smoking is a direct translation of Zabranjeno Pušenje) and plays a more ethnic variety of music, which still includes some of the old hits.

Series of roundtables

Is Literature Undergoing a Crisis?

Sep 20 and Sep 27, 7pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, no admission What is the attitude of writers, readers, reviewers, publishers and librarians towards current technological changes, mostly September 2010

56 EVENTS of the major participants of this event will be Ana Blandiana, Karl-Markus Gauss, Ilma Rakusa, Miodrag Pavlović. The event is a co-production between the Vilenica Festival (of literature) and Cankarjev dom.

Slovenian History at the Castle Ljubljana Castle now houses a new interesting permanent exhibition entitled Slovenian History.

The exhibition tells interesting stories from the past, and invites visitors to explore Slovenia’s rich national heritage.

Slovenian History, Ljubljana Castle’s new permanent exhibition, shows the dynamic history of Slovenia and Ljubljana. Slovenian territory, lying at the junction of natural routes between the Alps, the Adriatic Sea and the Pannonian Basin, has been the point of convergence of different peoples and cultures since prehistory. The exhibition covers the Slovenian history from the earliest traces of human presence (200,000 BC) to the landmark events following Slovenia’s independence in 1991.

Slovenian History exhibition is an extensive and complex project; in a difficult and primordial castle environment it represents more than thousand-year old history in a way that is attractive and understandable both to museum and the broadest audience.

Therefore the exhibition is not overloaded with information which is instead given gradually: with original objects, replicas, (children) interactions and audio-viDaily, 10am-9pm, Ljubljana Castle digitalization? Exchanges of opinions between French and Slovenian experts in literature are not intended to reach a consensus, but offer insight into a certain area of thought. Contributors:

Pop

Indexi and Friends Sep 26, 8pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 25–35

sual transmitted digitized information.

The focus is on the topics and surpluses of Slovenian history, by which we are distinguished in the world.

The fully bilingual exhibition, equipped with audio guides, is tailored to people with special needs and directs visitors to other museums and attractive locations in Slovenia, where you can get further, in-depth information on Slovenian history.

Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Miha Mazzini, Pierre Assouline, Andrej Blatnik, Paul Mathias, Peter Klepec Kršić, Roger Chartier, Drago Roter, Claire David, Rok Zavrtanik, Bruno Racine, Mateja Komel Snoj, Brina

Indexi is a band that needs no introduction to older musical fans, as they were one of the biggest names in Yugoslavian music in the 1970s and 1980s. Their recent reunion shows have been a hit with crowds all over Yugoslavia. The line-up includes all living members of the original Indexi and some distinguished guest vocalists: Dado Topić, Aki Rahimovski, Arsen Dedić, Željko Bebek, Mladen Vojičić Tifa, Zoran Predin, Kaliopi, Boris Novković, Massimo, Goran Karan, Hari Mata Hari and others.

Svit, Tomaž Šalamun, Boris Pahor.

The roundtables are co-produced

by Cankarjev dom and the Charles Nodier French Institute.

Modern theatre

Controllo Remoto Sep 20, 8pm, Kino Šiška, Ljubljana, EUR 15 Contorllo Remoto is a performance without any performers. The most important places are filled by other forms of expression, like sound, lights, videos and moving robots, with which the Italian group Ortographie presents war in different periods of time, including the present. The absence of Man creates an anxious apocalyptic atmosphere and a represents a threat that it takes only one push of a button to start a war. Controllo Remoto also destroys the theatre taboo that a play must have the audience and an actor in the same room.

Literature

The Award-winners Return Sep 23, 7pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, no admission The winners of the Vilenica Award will read from their current works, exchange views on the major topic of this year’s festival – Central Europe and the role of literature in contemporary society. Some The Slovenia Times

Jazz

Lovro Ravbar Quintet & Radiostar Sep 28, 8.30pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 11–14 One of the most prolific Slovenian musicians, Lovro Ravbar has recently asserted himself in Slovenia and abroad. Although to the jazz public largely known as the Leeloojamais co-founder and sax player, he has been contributing to a series of jazz projects. The highlights of Ravbar’s career encompass his 2008 jazz debut album, Rush Hour, his appearance at the Cerkno Jazz Festival and

EVENTS 57 involvement in the European Jazz Orchestra (EJO) 2009 tour. The lineup: Lovro Ravbar, alto and soprano saxophone; Erik Marenče and Rok Lopatič, piano, Fender Rhodes electric piano; Matej Hotko, double bass; Teo Collori, guitar; Gašper Bertoncelj, drums.

Metal

Heidenfest Tour 2010 Sep 29, 7pm, Cvetličarna, Ljubljana, EUR 25–29 We are in for another metal treat in Cvetličarna, this time with somewhat more primordial rhythms of the Pagan gods of black metal.

You will be in for a night of angry guitars and vocals and some folk segments, which often go hand in hand with this subgenre of metal.

Some of the bands performing at this mini festival will be Ensiferum, Equilibrium, Swashbuckle and Heidevolk, but there might also be another surprise.

Šukar is one of the most renowned Romani bands from Slovenia.

Since 1990 the band has been playing gypsy melodies, songs and tunes, all the while contemplating on the importance of tolerance.

Their musical path has led them across Germany, Norway, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Serbia and Japan and back to Slovenia.

They have also collaborated with many Slovenian artists and are considered to be very faithful in their preservation of the Romani culture. The concert marks the ensemble’s 20th anniversary.

of music technology and sonic arts research. The invited artists and researchers will give talks on their research activities, organization schemes and their artistic productions, and further present those in form of live performances, installations and workshops. The festival was created in association with the Institute for Sonic Arts Research.

Workshops

Percussion Workshops by The Stroj Oct 4, 4pm, Kino Šiška, Ljubljana

Earzoom Festival

Ethno

Bent Leather Band & Marek Choloniewski

Šukar

Oct 2, 8pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 8–10

Oct 2, 8pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 13–28

The central part of the festival features institutions from the field

In October Kino Šiška will again feature percussion workshops, held by the percussion orchestra of The Stroj. There will be beginners’ and advanced courses available.

New and old acquaintances of the workshops will learn and

expand their knowledge of making percussion instruments from trash and other materials.

They will combine their creative potential in a dynamic collective musical approach on the original instruments of The Stroj. The program will also include recording sound samples, loops and the basics of stage performances.

Avant-garde

The Thing with Otomo Yoshihide, Oct 5, 8.30pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 11–14 A Scandinavian ultimate power trio, The Thing has already appeared at the CD Club within the scope of the Radikal šik Festival (aside from some other concerts in Maribor and Ljubljana). This time, the trio will perform with the Japanese avant-garde guitar improviser Otomo Yoshihide, its recent partner in the album Shinjuku Crawl, another in the line of the band’s joint projects with artists, such as Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark, Thurston Moore, Jim O’Rourke and Cato Salsa Experience. This year The Thing celebrates its 10th anniversary of existence.

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58 SPORTS

Stožice Sports Park

The Beginning Of a New Era? Slovenia finally has a new sports complex. After years of blood, sweat, toil and tears – and a few last minute accusations of corruption – Stožice officially opened last month. The opening may not have betrayed the many controversies which have dogged the project, but nor did it entirely banish them. Is this EUR 80m development a jewel in Slovenia’s crown, or simply its biggest white elephant?

Photo: BOBO

by Polona Cimerman

N

o one can deny that Slovenia’s new sporting complex is beautiful. Stožice – built as a private-public partnership between the City of Ljubljana and Grep development company – was designed by famous architectural duo Sadar-Vuga. The roof rises above the park and its colour changes constantly, depending on the exterior conditions and viewing distance, offering breathtaking sights. The same goes for the 12,000-seat sports hall which is covered by a shell-shaped dome, which already earned it a nickname “shell” or “turtle”.

What many are questioning, however, is whether it is a facility that is needed. Some feel the legendary Plečnik stadium in Bežigrad – home to the first Slovenian football fairytales all those years ago

– should have been modernised instead.

A difficult path

Those questions contributed to the lengthy and difficult gestation of Stožice. Talk of a new sporting complex began decades ago, but remained just talk until very recently. It was only in 2008 that the preparation of the site began.

With it came more problems. The project was accused of unstable financial construction and bad planning when costs kept increasing and the construction work was not finished by the initial deadline of 30 June 2010. Sports started to be mixed with politics – enormous bank loans for the complex resulted in a motion to oust Minister of Education and Sport and left a dark mark on the mayor

of Ljubljana Zoran Janković, the main initiator of the project.

Nevertheless, both the opening events at Stožice – a basketball game on 10 August and a football match on 11 August – sold out quickly and the sense quickly became that the whole nation was counting down the days until the grand opening. Yet the troubles were not yet over. Just hours before the inaugural basketball match, subcontractors protested for not being paid by blocking the entrance to the arena. Moreover, there was uncertainty about getting the necessary operating permit for the complex – finally issued at more or less the very last minute.

Open at last

Amazingly, the chaos was not sensed at the hall’s opening cere-

mony, which featured dancers and acrobats. Janković gave a short speech and symbolically threw the ball to start the high-profile basketball match between Slovenia and Spain.

While the home nation lost the match 72-79 in overtime, there was still considerable reason for joy. “The hall is perhaps the most beautiful one in Europe. The atmosphere was phenomenal,” commented the basketball player Goran Jagodnik.

It was a better result for Slovenia the next night, with the country’s football team beating Australia 20 in a friendly. Members of both teams were enthusiastic about the stadium. Slovenia’s coach Matjaž Kek said the nation shouldn’t just be proud of its players but also of its new sports complex: “We all enjoyed ourselves, yesterday as spectators and today as players.

I’m happy Slovenia got appropriate facilities. We should all be proud about that.”

Sportsmen, then, are pleased with Stožice. Investors believe it will raise the level of interest in sports and also help its development. Spectators were abundant for the first two events. The complex is undoubtedly a milestone in Slovenian history and should mean Ljubljana can organise far more big events, ranging from sports to concerts.

But was it worth the money and years put into it? Some are still not sure.

The biggest football stadiums in Slovenia: Stožice Arena Petrol Ljudski vrt

Location

Capacity (seats)

(Re)constructed in

Ljubljana

16.000

2010

Celje

13.400

2003/2008

Maribor

12.437

1955/2008

Other important stadiums are Mestni stadion Izola, Bonifika in Koper, Fazanerija in Murska sobota etc. All can seat between 4000 and 6000 people yet it is difficult to rate them because the offer different levels of comfort for the viewer (seats or just benches, covered or open) Celje The Slovenia Times

Maribor

COLUMN

Football

The Fairytale Continues The Slovene football team is getting ready for the start of qualifications for the EC 2012 in Poland and Ukraine.

T

he summer football craze has not settled down yet, and we are already starting a new chapter in the fairytale of the Slovenian national football team.

The World Cup in South Africa showed that the national team is able to compete with the best in the world. With the opening of the new stadium in Ljubljana, a long-expected and (until now) unrealised wish has been granted to all of us, including fans and football players: to have a state-of-art sports venue, where the best Slovenian talents would have a chance to present themselves, to grow and to shine. At the grand opening of the stadium, Slovenia expectedly beat Australia’s selected team, thus showing the great increase in the quality in our national team over the last two years.

This is definitely the best moment to continue the Slovenian

EC Qualifier Matches in 2010 Slovenia – N.Ireland 3 Sept, Maribor Serbia – Slovenia 7 Sept, Belgrade, Serbia Slovenia – Faroe Islands 8 Oct, Ljubljana Estonia – Slovenia 12 Oct, Tallinn, Estonia

story of success and to begin a new cycle of qualifications for the European Championship 2012 in Poland and Ukraine. Slovenia opened the qualifications on their home ground in Maribor’s Ljudski vrt, against Northern Ireland, whom they had already faced at the World Cup qualifications 2010.

Slovenia’s manager, Matjaž Kek, already made it clear this match was serious business, and that only those who adapt 100% to the team and who are 100% ready for the match, will get the opportunity to play.

Slovenia is hosting a rival that matches us: the always challenging Northern Ireland national team, who is aware that Slovenia is motivated, giving them even greater motivation to beat a country that participated at the 2010 World Cup. Only four days after the first match, Slovenia’s team will face a difficult, if not the most difficult task in this qualification cycle, when they will be playing Serbia in Belgrade. We could say that this is a race in the C group, which includes – besides the already mentioned teams – the national teams of Italy, Estonia and the Faroe Islands. This kind of match (due to well-known historic facts) always generates a particular rivalry and a special motivation between these two teams, who have quite an interesting history of meeting at decisive and important matches.

Kicking off better times?

By Milan Glamočanin The Europa League has begun and most Slovenian teams have once again posted lacklustre performances.

There has been one notable exception: NK Maribor. How has this club reversed the Slovenian footballing tradition of embarrassing European showings?

Wives of football fans often complain that the sport has a season which never ends. This year, their complaint might just be justified.

No sooner had the 2009-2010 football season ended than the World Cup began. And no sooner had Spain walked off with the sport’s top prize than the Europa League kicked off.

As always, this European competition commenced with match ups between teams from the lower ranked football leagues. This includes Slovenia’s Premier League. Those who had high hopes for Slovenia’s teams were to once again be bitterly disappointed.

Once again, Slovenian football fans have been left questioning why their heroes are apparently incapable of good performances in Europe. Most fear that their teams simply regard the European matches as warm ups for the domestic season – as well as an annoying expense to deal with during tough financial times.

Only one set of supporters had reason to cheer: those of NK Maribor. The team got its Europea League campaign off to an impressive start – in its first four games, the side recorded one win and one draw against Hungarian club Videoton; and two wins against Scottish side Hibernian.

So where has it all gone right for the team from Slovenia’s second largest city? Yes, the club has had European success in the past – it was the only Slovenian squad to qualify for the prestigious Champions League in the 1999/2000 season. But it was also at this time that the team reached the brink of collapse thanks to a series of expensive purchases of foreign players. The acquisitions also had the effect of pushing talented home grown youngsters out of the team.

The club’s fortunes changed with the arrival of one Zlatko Zahovič, the biggest and most talented star of the first Slovenian football golden generation. Zahovič built his career at European clubs – at Porto, he was the leading goal scorer in the Champions League, and with Valencia he reached that competition’s final – but he had always promised to end his career in his home town of Maribor. It was a promise he kept, though not in the way that might have been envisaged – he never played for the club. Instead he accepted the role of Sports Director and so, since 2007, has been responsible for signing the club’s coaches, players and managers.

On joining his home club, Zahovič urged a new strategy. He pointed out that the club would never be able to compete with the financial incentives offered by squads in Central and Western Europe.

What Maribor needed to do instead, he argued, was to focus on investing in talented local youngsters.

It is a strategy which has seen the most promising players from other clubs come to Maribor, and which has created a team with an average age of just 25 (the granddad of the squad is Brazilian Marcos Tavares, who is just 26).

Arguably the deal of the decade came earlier this Summer, when Zahovič signed Josip Iličič and Robert Berič from Interblock Ljubljana. It was a deal which immediately paid dividends. Iličič scored two goals in the club’s first match against Hibernian, and put in an impressive performance against Videoton. National coach Matjaž Kek took notice, calling the 22-year-old up to the Slovenia team for its friendly against Australia – the first game played in the new Stožice stadium. In the few minutes’ play he was given, he once again showed great talent with a few simple but impressive moves.

When asked about Iličič at the post-match press conference, Kek stated simply: “that’s a youngster with balls!” It’s a description which could be equally applied to the young man’s club: a squad courageous enough to invest in young talent, and to really try in Europe. Perhaps there is light at the end of the tunnel for Slovenian club football after all.

59

60 SPORTS EVENTS

Kayak and Canoe Slalom World Championship

In 2003, the Canoe federation of Slovenia has been entrusted with the organisation of the kayak and canoe world championship, which will be held in the rapids of the Sava river between September 7 and 12 under the name of Sloka 2010.

Considering the excellent results Slovenian kayakers have reached in the past and current racing season with Peter Kauzer winning the title of the World and European Champion and the Taljat-Božič duo taking the 3rd place in the world championship, this year’s competition will be particularly intense. High level of excellence demonstrated by Slovenian sportsmen is also the starting point for the organizing committee, which has been intensively preparing for the contest for over a year. In addition to providing optimal conditions for the realisation of the racing part, their desire is to render a unique experience for all visitors and to create a real “kayakers’ festival” in Ljubljana. The sponsor of the championship is the president Danilo Türk, PhD, while the honorary chairman of the organizing committee is the Mayor of Ljubljana, Zoran Jankovič, which gives the event an even greater value.

In Ljubljana, 350 competitors from 70 countries will go for the title of the best in the world. Slovenes are known as a strong team which the other, foreign teams find a tough nut to crack even in team competitions, so we expect a very interesting and exciting kayak battles on the Sava rapids.

Boxing

Zavec - Jackiewicz Sat, Sep 4 at 7pm, ŠRC Stožice Ljubljana, from EUR 10 The most popular Slovenian boxer, the so called Mr Simpatikus, Dejan Zavec is hosting the Polish challenger Rafael Jackiewicz at the newly opened sports centre Stožice in Ljubljana. Zavec’s only defeat in his carrer was against this boxer two years ago, and this is a great opportunity for Zavec for revenge at the home stadium.

Football The organisers of Sloka 2010 have also prepared a number of related activities - some ecologically coloured, some representing kayaking in a slightly different way. In the same context the heart of Ljubljana will bear kayak decorations during the championship, when passers by will be able to see an interesting exhibition Kayart and an exhibition of kayaks, painted by elementary school children. At the start of the competition on Tuesday, September 7, 2010, spectacular opening ceremony will be held on Prešernov trg at 8pm.

Together with the Institute of Fair Play and Tolerance in Sport, the organisers will realise the project “cheerleading for all sportsmen”, with which they wish to ensure that each and every contestant will feel at home on the Tacen kayak route.

Sep 8 - 12, Ljubljana – Tacen, EUR 5

Olimpija : NK Maribor Wed, Sep 29, ŠRC Stožice Ljubljana, EUR 10 The biggest rivals of Slovenian premier league are meeting for the first time this season.

Olimpija will try to raise their morale after a shocking start of season while Maribor is expected to maintain its mood after the successful European campaign.

Early purchase of ticket is advised.

Ljubljana Water Games

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Workshops for children

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The Slovenia Times

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SPORTS 61

The Development of Basketball In Slovenia The Basketball Federation of Slovenia is celebrating its 60th anniversary. It is a time to look back in its rich and unforgettable past as well as to look forward.

B

asketball – then called korball – was being played in Slovenia in 1905 in schools and physical training societies, while its more formal beginnings were in 1921. The initiator and promoter of basketball in Slovenia was the physical education teacher and Sokol Maribor society member Ciril Hočevar, who prepared for the higher education acceptance exams in Prague at the Tyrš Institute, where he had to master the rules of basketball.

The first Slovenian to play for the Yugoslav national team was Mirko Amon, who played for the Ljubljana club Železničar; in 1950, he was the best shooter in the Yugoslav federal league. Mirko Amon also took part in the first World Championship in Argentina.

Following in his footsteps were Boris Kristančič (1951), Bogdan Mueller (1954), Jože Zupančič (1955), Marjan Kandus (1956) and Ivo Daneu (1956). Over next 40 years, Slovenian basketball players had an important role in the former Yugoslavia.

From the beginning, Slovenian basketball has had a special place in Europe and throughout world. For instance, FIBA, the International

Basketball Association, accepted the legendary Slovenian player Ivo Daneu into its Hall of Fame. The former member of the basketball teams of Maribor and Ljubljana Olimpija, even played a leading part in the select ranks of Yugoslavia, with whom he took to numerous medals at European and World championships.

In later years, the Yugoslav team won the title of European and world champion with Jože Papič (1977 – EC Belgium), Peter Vilfan (1978, WC Manila) and Jure Zdovc (1989 – EC Yugoslavia and 1991 – EC Italy, 1990 – WC Argentina).

Some facts about the Slovenian team The Basketball Association of Slovenia became a full member of the International Basketball Association FIBA on 10 January 1992.

The first game for the Slovenian team was on 20 May 1992. The Slovenian team, led at that time by Zmago Sagadin, played against Croatia in Slovenske Konjice.

Independent Slovenia’s first official game (Slovenia:Bulgaria 83:53) was played in the qualifications for the Olympics held in 1992 in Barcelona. Slovenia played very well in these qualifiers, enjoying seven victories out of 11 games. But it missed the Olympics by just a single basket.

the European Championship in Serbia and Montenegro in 2005. That team was led by Aleš Pipan.

Basketball Fairytale in Poland The Slovenian national team achieved the best place in its history at European championship 2009 in Poland, since it won the quarterfinals for the first time and was placed 4th in the end.

Although the final aim – a medal – was not reached, the whole delegation was seen as a combative, fearless and successful squad of heroes, led by Jure Zdovc – heroes that will live to see victory, perhaps as soon as in Turkey.

Erazem the Great For the first time in the history of Slovenian national team, one of its members made it to the all-tournament team. It was Erazem Lorbek, a 25-year-old player of Barcelona, who was the 3rd scorer (16.4 ppg) of the tournament and 3rd in rebounds (7.4 rpg).

And now… Turkey!

Memi Becirovic’s players are playing on the second world championship in the history of the country. It goal is to be the second in Group B with Olympic champions USA, all-time rivals Croatia, champions of FIBA Americas Brasil, Tunisia and Iran. After that, anything is possible.

The Slovenian team first paticipated in the European championship in 1993. The European championship was held in Germany and Slovenians had high expectations, as they won all seven games in qualification. That team was lead by Janez Drvarič.

The team first participated in the World Championship in 2006. An appearance in Japan was ensured by taking 6th place in

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After the Second World War, basketball enjoyed a meteoric rise across most of Slovenia. The new sport excited young people and became a success among sports generally. Before the founding of the Basketball Association of Slovenia, on 15 January 1950, basketball was played in numerous places around Slovenia, where it was organised mainly by physical education teachers in schools and sports societies. The first president of Basketball Association of Slovenia was Tine Benedičič.

September 2010

VIP tennis tournament in Velenje: Transport Minister Partick Vlačič, MP Krel Erjevec (DeSUS) and Gorenje CEO Franjo Bobinac.

(Mediaspeed)

Lipizzaners promoting tourism in Piran.

The Festival of Kranjska Sausage. (Mediaspeed)

EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY

Jose Mojica Marins, the legend of horror film with Culture Minister Majda Širca and Dinko Tucaković, manager of Yugoslav cinema archives at the final event of Grossman film festival in Ljutomer. (Mediaspeed)

Ultra-marathon cyclist Marko Baloh at Switzerland’s Tortour 2010 (1001 km, 15.000m elevation gain)

Sandra Skutnik, “Miss Slovenije 2010 Talent Show” winner, Sandra Adam Miss Slovenije 2010 and other finalists.

(Mediaspeed)

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