He first noted that this was a great day for everyone present, as a great deal of effort had been invested in the execution of the project: “In Slovenia, it is sometimes difficult to carry out a project, but it is never impossible. It is true, however, that the road to success is not an easy one. But this gives us a chance to truly celebrate the success of every completed project as well as every newly started one.”

Mr Šarec believes that, even with today’s opening, the investment is not yet completed; on the contrary, this is merely a beginning, as has been said many times before. Production with high added value will create new jobs in the future and Magna will be able to realise its own set goals.

He also mentioned investment incentives in more general terms, noting, “Sometimes we hear that Slovenia is not exactly a friendly environment for investment, which is not true. Slovenia certainly supports foreign investment and, although sometimes there might be difficulties at the beginning, the project gets realised in the end.”

On this formal occasion, the Prime Minister expressed his hopes for Magna to succeed and create new jobs and that economic circumstances would remain favourable to us, although this ultimately lies beyond our control. At the end of his speech, he once again thanked everyone involved for a successfully carried out investment.

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The construction of the facilities represents the largest greenfield investment in Slovenia’s history. To implement the Magna project in Slovenia, the Government adopted a special act to expedite the investment procedures and also provided an additional EUR 18.6 million of financial incentive in the form of grants to investors; the total investment thus amounted to EUR 146.4 million. The Slovenian branch of the company now employs a little over 200 people and, based on the commitments it has made, should employ around 200 more within the next three years; the total number of employees should reach at least one thousand within the next ten years. The company states that its ties to Slovenia were already strong long before the new facilities in Hoče were acquired. Its parent facility in Graz has indeed employed many Slovenians for many years. Today over 1,800 employees of a total of some 10,000 come from Slovenia.