Government increases the earmarked assets of the Public Fund of the Republic of Slovenia for Entrepreneurship

At today's meeting of the Committee on the Economy, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia increased the earmarked assets and capital of the Public Fund of the Republic of Slovenia for Entrepreneurship by contributing earmarked assets to the capital of the Public Fund of the Republic of Slovenia for Entrepreneurship, in the form of EUR 20 million in cash. The assets are earmarked for the implementation of financial products for companies as a measure to mitigate the effects of the energy crisis, specifically EUR 10 million in 2023 and EUR 10 million in 2024.

The increase, the value and the type of earmarked assets must be entered in the Court Register by the Public Fund of the Republic of Slovenia for Entrepreneurship. The Government of the Republic of Slovenia shall conclude a contract on the transfer of funds to the earmarked assets of the Public Fund of the Republic of Slovenia for Entrepreneurship and authorises the Minister of Economy, Tourism and Sport to sign it.

The Fund will use the earmarked assets of EUR 20 million to implement financial products for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. The Fund will use the earmarked assets for the implementation of financial products in accordance with the Act Governing Aid to Businesses to Mitigate Impact of Energy Crisis and the Ministry's Financial Incentives Implementation Programme. Financial incentives in the form of loans are planned to provide liquidity to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

Government approves the Business and Financial Plan of the Public Fund of the Republic of Slovenia for Entrepreneurship

At a committee meeting, the Government adopted the Amendments and Additions to the Business and Financial Plan of the Public Fund of the Republic of Slovenia for Entrepreneurship for 2023.

Each year, in accordance with the Public Funds Act, the Slovene Enterprise Fund prepares a business and financial plan for the coming year, which it submits to the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, as the founder, for adoption. Prior to this, it is considered by the Fund's Supervisory Board, which is required to draw up a written report to the founder in which it takes a position on the business and financial plan or on amendments and additions to it. The Supervisory Board considered the document at its 1st Regular Session on 15 June 2023 and gave a favourable opinion on the amendments.

The amendments to the Business and Financial Plan concern the modification of the originally planned special incentive measure for young enterprises for sustainable development, to be replaced by the implementation of a special incentive measure for micro-enterprises in the woodwork sector. Activities are also planned to prepare for the implementation of the actions to be funded from the 2021–2027 financial perspective.

In view of the above, the amendments and additions to the 2023 Business and Financial Plan relate to the exclusion of the originally planned special incentives for young enterprises for sustainable development, which were planned to be financed from the remaining funds of the 2014–2020 financial perspective, and to the inclusion of the implementation of the special incentives for micro-enterprises in the woodwork sector, which will be financed from the budget. They also refer to the activities for the preparation of relevant documents and programmes in 2023, which will be implemented through the Fund, in line with the guidelines of the Ministry responsible for the economy.

These changes do not have a significant impact on the planned amount of funding granted and the number of companies supported, so despite the amendments and additions, the plan remains to grant approximately EUR 122 million in financial and contextual incentives and to support an estimated 2330 projects.

The government included a new project, "Smart Survey Implementation", in the current Development Programme Plan 2023–2026

At the Committee Session, the Government also adopted a proposal to include the new project, "Smart Survey Implementation", in the current Development Programme Plan 2023–2026.

The Smart Survey Implementation (SSI) project is implemented by a consortium of countries under the name ESSnet Smart Surveys. The project explores and tests advanced data collection techniques for official statistics, using measurement instruments to get closer to the respondent and the data source. The project will run for 24 months, until 30 April 2025. The project involves 11 organisations from 8 European countries and is coordinated by the Statistical Office of the Netherlands (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek).

As is the case with compilers of official statistics around the world, the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (SURS) is facing declining response rates in its surveys. In this context, it wants to understand the motivations and reasons of respondents for participating in surveys of official statistics that would include smart features (e.g. location recognition, based on the consent of the respondent). The project will carry out a survey on the general population to examine the reasons for participating in surveys that include smart features. Participation in this part of the project is crucial for SURS, as it will provide important information on the characteristics and motivations of respondents in surveys of official statistics, based on the survey conducted in the project. In addition, SURS will also monitor the other results of the project to gain important additional information on the actual strategies for conducting future official statistics surveys using smart features.