On Wednesday, 29 January 2025, Barbara Uranjek, CEO of the British- Slovenian Chamber of Commerce, and Žiga Fišer, Senior Trade Consultant, attended the 24th session of the National Council's Commission for Economy, Trade, Tourism and Finance. The Commission took note of the conclusions of the UK-Slovenia Trade Conference, which the Chamber co-organised with the National Council on 11 October 2024.

The conference focused on strengthening economic cooperation between Slovenia and the UK as well as discussing business opportunities in the UK market, with a particular emphasis on the exchange of good practices and the identification of new business opportunities. Prior to the conference, the Chamber conducted a survey on the business environment in the UK, trade challenges, and the impact of Brexit on Slovenian businesses. The results of the survey were presented at the conference.

At the session, Uranjek and Fišer also presented the Chamber's analysis of economic cooperation between Slovenia and the UK. They pointed out that Slovenia has competitive advantages compared to the UK in the production of complex products (machinery, electronic and electrical products, vehicles and spare parts), and that both countries have a well-developed pharmaceutical industry (originators come from the UK, generics from Slovenia), so international trade in pharmaceutical products will continue to move in both directions in the future. With the growth of biotechnology medicines in Slovenia, there is also potential for Slovenia's trade balance to grow even further.

On the other hand, the UK has a strong advantage in intellectual services (business, legal, tax advice), mainly due to its good education system and strong financial market. ICT services are important for both countries, with exports from Slovenia being so-called 'tailor-made' solutions and imports being more complex and larger IT systems. Tourism could also be expected to flourish, but given the geographical distance, more regular flight connections are a prerequisite.

The experience of Slovenian businesses present in the UK market shows that it is a market with a high degree of ease of doing business and high purchasing power, where companies can achieve high margins. At the same time, the competitive environment in the UK encourages companies to innovate and develop premium products. Additional government incentives and targeted delegations could further open up and complement business opportunities for Slovenian exporters.

The following conclusions were drawn from the presentation and the discussion:

1. Cooperation with the UK needs to be accelerated. In a market of 70 million people, trade between the two countries is not significant enough.

2. Greater efforts are also needed in the area of tourism and the related increase in scheduled flights (only 3 flights a week from Slovenia to the UK, e.g. Zagreb 14).

3. With the German economy, the so-called engine of the EU economy, cooling down, the UK market can be a good alternative, offering tremendous opportunities to expand first into Commonwealth markets and eventually into other global markets. With the new Labour government keen to strengthen economic cooperation with the EU, it would be wise for Slovenia to support the European Commission's efforts to reduce bureaucratic barriers to economic cooperation.

The National Council will consider the report on the conclusions from the Conference and the analysis of economic cooperation at its session on 26 February 2025. The Government of the Republic of Slovenia and the Ministry of Economy, Tourism and Sport have also been called upon to examine the report and to submit their position within 30 days. The full report with conclusions is available on the website of the National Council (Slovenian language only). The Commission session can be watched on RTV SLO via this link (Slovenian language only).