The conference is organised by the Slovenian World Congress and addresses a range of topics, from the impact of the global economy on society to climate change and ecology. The prime minister started by pointing out that we should all be very proud of the extremely successful and world-famous Institut Jožef Stefan. In his words, the success of IJS confirms that many things can be achieved with knowledge, will and a lack of negativism.

“If we do not set ambitious goals and keep telling ourselves that we will never succeed and that we are a small country, then we will not succeed. There is too much of that in Slovenia. We have to ask ourselves whether we respect ourselves enough, whether we respect the country that we obtained in 1991 when we were not even aware of what we have done. We must have self-confidence and we must stop being our own worst enemy.” He reminded the assembled company that science and education had stagnated during the economic crisis, but that the Slovenian government would continue to strive to provide as many resources as possible to advance science and further development so that we reach the level we wish to reach. He also pointed out that there was a large increase in funds for this area in the budget for the next two years.