Activities and Measures to promote domestic and foreign direct investment

Investment promotion activities and measures are aimed at investors at all stages of their entry into the Slovenian market, in the pre-, intra- and post-investment periods.

Investment promotion activities include the provision of quality information, advisory and other services to investors, the implementation of marketing communication activities, the preparation of events that help to strengthen the visibility of the Republic of Slovenia as a location for investment, project management of investment projects, cooperation with existing investors in Slovenia with a view to their expansion, and the analysis of the competitive position of the Republic of Slovenia from an investment perspective.

Promoting investment

Measures to encourage investment, which are equal for both domestic and foreign investors, are regulated by the Investment Promotion Act.

The Act provides the following investment incentives: 

• grants,
• incentives in the form of loans, guarantees and interest rate subsidies; and
• purchase of property owned by a local community at a lower than market price based on a direct agreement.

The detailed determination of the conditions for granting investment incentives, the determination of the conditions for strategic investment, the criteria for assessing applications for granting investment incentives and the criteria for determining the public benefit demonstrated for strategic investment are laid down in the Regulation on amendments and additions to the Regulation on the method of determining conditions and criteria for the allocation of investment incentives and conditions for strategic investment.

Screening of foreign direct investment in the Republic of Slovenia

The screening of foreign direct investment is carried out by the Ministry responsible for the economy as part of a national mechanism to monitor foreign investment and protect national security interests.

The national mechanism for screening foreign direct investment in the Republic of Slovenia is implemented on the basis of the amended provisions of the Law on Foreign Direct Investment, while the legal basis for the Slovenian mechanism is Regulation (EU) 2019/452 establishing a framework for the screening of foreign direct investment in the Union.

Notification of foreign direct investment

A foreign direct investment must be notified to the Ministry responsible for the economy if the following three conditions are cumulatively met.

• The transaction is by a foreign investor.
• The transaction constitutes a foreign direct investment through which the investor acquires at least 10 % of the capital or voting rights in a Slovenian company.
• The activity of the target company relates to one of the risk factors (critical infrastructure, critical technologies, supply of critical resources, access to sensitive information, freedom and pluralism of the media and projects or programmes of interest to the European Union).

The Notification Commission at the ministry responsible for the economy deals with notifications of foreign direct investment and issues opinions on the introduction of the review procedure – preliminary procedure. If the review procedure is introduced and it is established that the foreign direct investment affects the security and public order of the Republic of Slovenia, it may be prohibited, revoked or the conditions for its implementation may be determined. The notification shall be submitted directly to: Internationalisation, Entrepreneurship and Technology Directorate.