EU Court in Luxembourg has provided VZMD with the written position of all persons concerned in the case of C-526/14, Tadej Kotnik e.a., in which the court was asked by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia to clarify the legal nature of the communication published by the European Commission – focusing on the question whether the Banking Communication as of August 1, 2013, with which the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Slovenia and the Bank of Slovenia »justify« the cancellation of all shares and subordinated bonds in as many as six Slovenian banks, is legally binding. Apart from the European Commission, the Bank of Slovenia, the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, and the Republic of Slovenia itself, represented by the State Attorney's Office, the brief written opinions on behalf of their countries were provided by the State Attorney's Offices of Ireland, Italy and Spain.

The European Commission (EC), the creator of the communications whose legal nature was subject to the question posed by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia to the EU Court, did -in its written report submitted to the EU Court in the document with the reference number 988019 - explicitly and unequivocally bolster the position of VZMD and expropriated investors in Slovenian banks that its Banking Communication is not a legally binding act: "The Banking Communication shall not bind the Member States" (page 5, section 11), and "The Banking Communication is not binding on the Member States" (page 7, section 18).

VZMD has, on behalf of the expropriated investors in Slovenian banks, who it represents, repeatedly cautioned to the absurdityof the claims made by the senior officials of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Slovenia and the Bank of Slovenia (BS), saying that the cancellation of all subordinated bonds in the Republic of Slovenia was unavoidable as it was ordered through the EC Banking Communication, which is allegedly a legally binding EU act. The absurdity of such claims is clearly evident from at least two legal facts: Article 288 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU which is defining legal acts of the EU, has no mention of the EC communication whatsoever; in addition, all legal acts of EU are published in the regulatory part of the Official Journal of the EU (section L - Legislation), whereas the EC communication in the announcements (section C - Information and Notices). As the officials of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Slovenia and the Bank of Slovenia have persistently "relativized" mentioned facts, VZMD has frequently reiterated that even the EU Court has in all three legal wrangles so far, in which the EC reproached the EU Member States (also) for the failure to comply with the EC communications, dismissed the reproach as unfounded explicitly stating that the EC communications are not legally binding acts (judgments in the matters C-70/06, EC against Portugal, §34; C‑369/07, EC against Greece, §112; in C-270/11, EC against Sweden, §41).

Hence even the EC expressly agrees with the legal fact that its communications are not legally binding acts and this has been explicitly indicated twice in its written position. However, the opposite written position provided by the Bank of Slovenia unfortunately has anew confirmed that this is an institution which has already ages ago disregarded any objectivity by covering up its inadmissible conduct and by resorting to falsehoods and misleading statements without hesitation  - and if nothing works out, even to the utterly absurd ones. In so doing, in its written opinions provided to the EU Court in the document with the reference number 988072, the Bank of Slovenia stated: "The Banking Communication in terms of the interpretation of the EU primary law is only binding on the Commission but also on the national courts and other institutions in a Member State" (page 15, section 28)!

In view of the above, the VZMD President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, stated: "As it seems, the Bank of Slovenia believes that it is highly competent to lecture the EU Court on withdrawal from its own - and the only reasonable - position on the unbinding legal nature of the European Commission communications, and as if this were not sufficiently arrogant and disgraceful, it also claims to understand the legal nature of the European Commission acts better than the European Commission itself!"

The legal experts, who have together with VZMD been preparing the materials for proceedings before the EU Court believe that such absurd statements by the Bank of Slovenia should in no way affect the ruling of the EU Court, but VZMD shall nevertheless submit a proposal to grant the oral proceedings in this matter at the Court. The EU Court normally institutes oral proceedings only in exceptional circumstances, but VZMD believes it to be useful in this case - also in the face of increasing non-credibility of the actions taken Bank of Slovenia, which is supposed to be the guardian of fairness.»Unfortunately in the Slovenian case, the Central bank has evidently focused majority of its efforts - together with certain representatives of the financial authorities - on the fight against its own citizens, which is a particularly alarming phenomenon we are compelled to deal with and "treat" abroad as well,« was how Mr. Verbič commented on the further steps of VZMD.

On Friday night, the round table on ownership restructuring and investment opportunities in Poland and Slovenia marked the beginning of the two-day program of the Polish-Slovenian Business Forum in Ljubljana which, under the authority of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was attended by nearly 60-member delegation from Poland.

Besides numerous representatives of companies and institutions from both countries, among whom were also Secretary at the Ministry for the Economic Development and Technology, Mr. Metod Dragonja, CEO of the Bank Assets Management Company BAMC/DUTB, Mr. Torbjorn Mansson and Head of Client Relation Department at the Warsaw Stock Exchange, Mr. Pawel Czupryna, and at the invitation of the organizers the event was also attended by the PanSlovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD) President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, who seized the opportunity for the activities related to both the VZMD's international business-investor programs: Invest to Slovenia – investo.si and International Investors` Network – invest-to.net, and usual efforts of VZMD linked to the scandalous expropriation of Nova KBM shareholders. The latter was touched upon also by the participants of Monday's round table, as Nova KBM's shares also quoted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, and the cancellation directly or indirectly affected also numerous investors and Polish citizens. In this regard, the participants stressed that unfortunately exactly this keeps tarnishing the reputation of Slovenia, the issue of which has ever since cancellation/expropriation been raised also by VZMD.

Yesterday the event went on with the official opening of the business forum, where the attendees were addressed by the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Slovenia, His Excellency Paweł Czerwiński, leader of the Polish delegation and the Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland,  Ms. Katarzyna Kacperczyk, Secretary at Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia, Ms. Dragoljuba Benčina, Secretary at the Ministry for the Economic Development and Technology, Mr. Aleš Cantarutti, and the General Manager of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, Mr. Samo Hribar Milič.

In addition to compelling presentations of business environments, opportunities and examples of best practices, the VZMD President was also actively engaged in B2B meetings, where almost  90 participants from both countries got together.

VZMD has so far excellently collaborated with partners from Poland. To name a few, in 2011, VZMD organized the high visibility »Slovenian day at the Warsaw Stock Exchange« (VIDEO), and last year, Mr. Verbič also attended the international conference »Warsaw Capital Market Summit 2014« at the Warsaw Stock Exchange and the conference of the National Bank of Poland and the International Monetary Fund »Building Market Economies in Europe: Lessons and Challenges after 25 Years of Transition«.

On Friday evening, the members of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia adopted the amending act to the Book Entry Securities Act (ZNVP-1) in the third reading with 70 votes for and 4 against, and which to a large extent draws on the VZMD's proposals to alleviate the catastrophic impact of the amending act of the ZNVP-1, which namely brings with it the abolishment of the registry accounts for about 260,000 natural persons. Following the unanimous support to the amendment of the ruling coalition within the 2^nd reading on Wednesday September 23, 2015, the members also supported, with 69 votes for and 4 against, the additional amendment to the Article 48 of the ZNVP-1, tabled by the deputy group of the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), which by means of its additional 3^rd paragraph shall limit the annual costs of keeping accounts and the compensation for the balance maintenance on the trading account to the maximum of 0.5% of the average value of securities on the account..

Following the support to VZMD to limit such costs, which have too frequently accounted for the significant part of the minority shareholder portfolio value, such additional amendment also followed the VZMD's opinion on the coalition's amendment, delivered to the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia on September 17, 2015, which is why it was supported by VZMD immediately upon its tabling, on Thursday, September 24, 2015. On this occasion, the VZMD President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, welcomed the significant progress in handling registry accounts abolishment problems, which »nevertheless reflects a certain extent of regard to uphold minority shareholders and regulate the status of investors - particularly those who are keen on being part of the Slovenian joint-stock companies, and in this manner maintain and increase effectiveness of tied up resources, save for their old age, healthcare services, education of their offspring, etc.« and was also pleased about the fact that the »the party politics was finally unified and responded to the VZMD's appeal to make slight additional efforts when formulating the definitive text of Article 48 of the ZNVP-1 proposal, and, after all already invested efforts and adjustments, to reach a solution which could be classified as acceptable and optimal in the usual context of the claimed urgency .«

Note that, ever since the drafting of the mentioned Act, VZMD has vigorously opposed the abolishment of the registry accounts at the Central Securities Clearing Corporation (KDD), where nearly 260,000 minority shareholder have their securities freely deposited, which have been largely acquired through ownership certificates. As it has been proved necessary that the abolishment of the registry accounts could not be avoided, VZMD, on September 4, 2015 put forward a compromise proposal, which represented to a large extent a foundation also for the amendment of the ruling coalition. The latter provided for the delay of the natural person registry account abolishment into 2017, and ushered in the direct reporting by the KDD. Thus, for at least 100,000 minority shareholders - who hold shares worth up to EUR 100 on their registry accounts at KDD - the amendment brings court fee exemption in the event that they do not transfer their shares to trading accounts at brokerage firms or banks which would consequently lead to transfer to the court deposit after January 1, 2017. In this regard, VZMD firmly raised the question of methods for valuation of shares on registry accounts and of the inappropriateness of the very low limit of EUR 100 up to which the shareholders are entitled to the court fee exemption.

However, as early as in February this year, VZMD sent to the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Slovenia even an Urgency, with which they reiterated that Ministry, among other things was proposing abolishment of registry accounts at KDD, obscuring ownership structures, lowering the level of legal security, making it more difficult to attend meetings, additional financial and social burdens, explicitly reducing the number of minority shareholders and the proportion of local ownership in Slovenian companies etc. The first proposed amending act of the ZNVP-1 namely bore all the more serious consequences for the capital market, especially for over 260,000 Slovenian minority shareholders (natural persons), who might be the next year relentlessly deleted from the register of shareholders, that is, they might lose their shares in the face of abolishment of (their) registry accounts at the KDD, or »punished« with the court fees for the automatic court deposits of their shares. That is why VZMD has insisted on scathing criticism of such amending act of the ZNVP-1, which was anew pointed out by the VZMD President also in the meeting of the Finance and Monetary Policy Council of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia on Wednesday, September 2, 2015. (RECORDING of the meeting – VZMD caveats and proposals from 51:40 minute onwards)

Even beforehand, VZMD had frequently voiced against the proposed abolishment of the registry accounts (inter alia also using the remarks and proposals regarding the ZNVP-1 on October 28, 2014, November 26, 2014 and February 5, 2015), in addition, VZMD has since October 2014 been actively engaged in harmonizing the text of the Proposed directive of the European Parliament and Council of the EU regarding changes to the 2007/36/ES directive regarding encouraging the long-term shareholder engagement and 2013/34/EU directive regarding specific elements of the declaration about corporate governance. Regarding the Proposed directive directly related to the Proposed amending act of the ZNVP-1, VZMD, as early as on October 6, 2014 sent its remarks and proposals - in line with the Better Finance proposals (European Federation of Financial Services, where Mr. Verbič is a member of the Executive Board) - also to directly to the Ministry for Economic Development and Technology.

It has been exactly three years since the beginning of the largest gathering of investor representatives and shareholders in the world »Investors' Week« (VIDEO), which took place in Slovenia with the support of the European Commission and organized by VZMDwithin its international business-investor programsInvest to Slovenia - investo.si & International Investors' Network - invest-to.net, from September 19th to 23rd, 2012.

Right after VZMD sent the compromise amendment and appeal to the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia on September 4 to alleviate the catastrophic impact of the proposed amending act of the Book Entry Securities Act (ZNVP-1) and following numerous conversations with the representatives of the Parliamentary groups, it was on September 15 that the Parliamentary groups of the ruling coalition tabled an amendment, which draws on and also includes the compromise proposals by VZMD to a large extent. In addition to the delay of the abolishment of registry accounts for natural persons until 2017 and mandatory direct reporting by the Central Securities Clearing Corporation (KDD), the new coalition's proposal would entitle at least approx. 100,000 shareholders - who hold shares worth up to EUR 100 on their registry accounts at KDD - to court fee exemption, in the event that they do not transfer their shares to trading accounts at brokerage firms or banks which would consequently lead to transfer to the court deposit after January 1, 2017.

Thus, the VZMD president, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, sent to the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia yesterday VZMD's opinion on the coalition's amendment regarding Article 48 of ZNVP-1 in which he welcomes the significant progress in addressing the issue of registry account abolishment, which reflects a certain degree of understanding for upholding minority shareholders in the Republic of Slovenia. On this occasion too, Mr. Verbič points out that »yet another step in the right direction unfortunately does not imply that the goal of the appropriate (related) solution for the status of minority shareholders has been reached - particularly of those who are keen on being part of Slovenian joint-stock companies, and in this manner maintain and increase effectiveness of tied up resources, save for their old age, healthcare services, education of their offspring, etc.« In this context, the VZMD President appeals to the deputies to make slight additional efforts when formulating the definitive text of Article 48 of the ZNVP-1 proposal as »it would be truly a pity, after all already invested efforts and adjustments, to be so near, yet so far from the solution which could be classified as acceptable and optimal in the usual context of the claimed urgency.«

However, the first, (still) proposed amending act of ZNVP-1, bears severe consequences for the capital market, particularly for over 260,000 Slovenian minority shareholders (natural persons), who might be the next year relentlessly deleted from the register of shareholders, that is, they might lose their shares in the face of abolishment of (their) registry accounts at the KDD, or »punished« with the court fees for the automatic court deposits of their shares. That is why VZMD has insisted on scathing criticism of such amending act of ZNVP-1, which was anew pointed out by the VZMD President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, also in the meeting of the Finance and Monetary Policy Council of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia on Wednesday, September 2. (RECORDING of the meeting – VZMD caveats and proposals from 51:40 minute onwards)

Note that VZMD sent an urgency, to the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Slovenia in February, with which they reiterated that Ministry, among other things, was proposing abolishment of registry accounts at KDD, obscuring ownership structures, lowering the level of legal security, making it more difficult to attend meetings, additional financial and social burdens, explicitly reducing the number of minority shareholders and the proportion of local ownership in Slovenian companies etc.

Even beforehand, VZMD had  frequently voiced against  the proposed abolishment of the registry accounts (inter alia also using the remarks and proposals regarding the ZNVP-1 on October 28, 2014, November 26, 2014 and February 5,. 2015), in addition VZMD has since October 2014 been actively engaged in harmonizing the text of the Proposed directive of the European Parliament and Council of the EU regarding changes to the 2007/36/ES directive regarding encouraging the long-term shareholder engagement and 2013/34/EU directive regarding specific elements of the declaration about corporate governance.. Regarding the Proposed directive directly related to the Proposed amending act of ZNVP, VZMD sent its remarks and proposals as early as on October 2014 - in line with the Better Finance proposals ( European Federation of Financial Services, where Mr. Verbič is a member of the  Executive Board) - also directly to the Ministry for Economic Development and Technology.

Through the proposed compromise amendment and appeal to the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, VZMD has at least attempted to alleviate the catastrophic impact of the proposed amending act of the Book Entry Securities Act (ZNVP-1). VZMD's Expert Council - in light of the adversarial meeting of the Finance and Monetary Policy Council on Wednesday, September 2, 2015 - propose the following:

1. delay of the due date for abolishment of registry accounts until 2017 for natural persons (individual investors), with which their obligation to pay compensation for maintaining accounts would cease already for the entire 2016, although they would have open accounts for 3 months at most;

2. court fee suspension (which is, subject to paragraph 5 of the Article 10 of the Court Fee Act, a systemically relevant solution), whereby, in case of the lodgment of security deposits, also the probability of numerous individual disputes which may be raised by affected persons (particularly small shareholders) shall decrease in each individual procedure involving court deposits.

In this regard, VZMD has been appealing to the deputies of the National Assembly to make necessary efforts, in case registry account abolishment is inevitable, at least to alleviate detrimental consequences - both of social (higher costs, less transparency) and corporate nature (retreat of minority shareholders leading to ownership consolidation, poorer control).

The proposed amending act of ZNVP-1, which is about to be adopted in the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, would have severe consequences for the capital market, particularly for over 260,000 Slovenian minority shareholders (individual investors), who might be the next year relentlessly deleted from the register of shareholders, that is, they might lose their shares in the face of abolishment of (their) registry accounts at the Central Securities Clearing Corporation (KDD), or »punished« with the court fees for the automatic court deposits of their shares. For this reason, VZMD has been persistent in objecting to this amending act of ZNVP-1, which was reiterated by the VZMD President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, in the meeting of the Finance and Monetary Policy Council of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia on Wednesday, September 2, 2015. (RECORDING of the meeting – VZMD caveats and proposals from 51:40 minute onwards)

Note that VZMD sent an urgency, to the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Slovenia in February, with which they reiterated that Ministry, among other things, was proposing termination of registry accounts at KDD, obscuring ownership structures, lowering the level of legal security, making it more difficult to attend meetings, additional financial and social burdens, explicitly reducing the number of minority shareholders (individual investors) and the proportion of local ownership in Slovenian companies etc. Even beforehand, VZMD had  frequently voiced against the proposed termination of the registry accounts (inter alia also using the remarks and proposals regarding the ZNVP on October 28, 2014, November 26, 2014 and February 5, 2015), in addition VZMD has since October 2014 been actively engaged in harmonizing the text of the Proposed directive of the European Parliament and Council of the EU regarding changes to the 2007/36/ES directive regarding encouraging the long-term shareholder engagement and the 2013/34/EU directive regarding specific elements of the declaration about corporate governance. Regarding the Proposed directive directly related to the Proposed amending act of ZNVP, VZMD sent its remarks and proposals as early as on October 2014 - in line with the Better Finance proposals (European Federation of Financial Services, where Mr. Verbič is a member of the  Executive Board) - also directly to the Ministry for Economic Development and Technology.

Last week, the Bled Strategic Forum - the largest foreign affairs event in Slovenia - took place at Bled. The two day event was attended by more than 700 attendees from more than 65 countries, among them a number of the most important representatives from politics, diplomacy and commerce from Slovenia, EU and beyond.

The President of the PanSlovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD), Mr. Kristjan Verbič, also attended this year's events, for a fifth time now, in what was an opportunity among others, to also take advantage of a number of talks and informal meetings, above all in relation to the international business-investor programs, Invest to Slovenia (investo.si) and the International Investors' Network (invest-to.net).

The 10th Strategic Forum, entitled Vision of New Partnerships, discussed the important topics of peace and security, business co-operation, development and human rights, upon which the role and meaning of partnerships were especially highlighted. Alongside the topics of partnership, the forum took place under the symbol of important events: the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations, the 40th anniversary of the Declaration of Helsinki and the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica.

The Austrian Constitutional Court announced yesterday that the expropriation of the subordinated bond holders is unconstitutional, as it infringes upon »the fundamental right to the protection of property«,therefore the reference to the precarious situation of the 

Land of Carinthia cannot be used as an argument... In light of this, the disputable Hypo Reorganization Act (Hypo-Sanierungsgesetz – HaaSanG) dating back to August 2014 was entirely abrogated, the Austrian Constitutional Court has also stated in the notice (www.vfgh.gv.at/cms/vfgh-site/attachments/3/0/3/CH0003/CMS1438067838598/hypopresseinfoen.pdf).

The PanSlovenian Investors' and Shareholders' Association - VZMD, which lodged an initiative for the constitutional assessment with the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia as early as in December 2013, also expects from the Slovenian Constitutional Court to finally pass the judgment in the procedure of its "absolutely high priority constitutional judgment" of the contentious amendment of the Banking Act and expropriation of the holders of subordinated bonds and stocks of Slovenian banks in December 2013!

The central commemoration at the Russian Chapel, which was attended alsoby the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev along with two another ministers of the Russian government and more than 100 member delegation during this year's 99th anniversary of the construction of the Chapel took place at Vršič yesterday.

The commemorated event which every year brings together numerous high representatives of the Slovenian and Russian politics, diplomacy, economy, culture and veteran organizations - in commemoration of the Russian prisoners who died tragically following an avalanche when building the Vršič Pass during the first world war in 1916 - was attended by more than a thousand visitors. The attendees were, besides Prime Minister Medvedev and in the presence of the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Chairman of the National Assembly of the RS, the President of the National Council of the RS and numerous ministers in the Slovenian government, also addressed by the honorary sponsor of the event, the Prime Minister of the RS, Mr. Miro Cerar, and the former President of the RS, Mr. Milan Kučan, as the honorary member of the Slovenia - Russia Association.

At the invitation of the organizers, Russian Federation Embassy, Kranjska Gora municipality, »Russkiy mir« foundation, and Slovenia-Russia Association, the commemoration was attended by the VZMD President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, who dedicated the social event traditionally following the commemoration at the Russian Chapel also to establishment and reinforcement of the bonds of friendship, culture and business, as well as endeavors regarding the international business-investor programs ofVZMD: Invest to Slovenia (investo.si) and International Investors` Network (invest-to.net), under which the forth year of collaboration is marked also with the sister Russian Investors Association, through active participation at as many as four visits of the members of the Government of the RS and economic delegations to Moscow and Yaroslavl.

At the special invitation from the Turkish Business Angels Association (TBAA), the team of the PanSlovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD), joined the international delegation of business angels, which visited Albania, Kosovo and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, as a focal part of the sixth tour of the VZMD's international business-investor programs, within five days at the end of May 2015. For this purpose, the team of VZMD.tv / investo.TV produced an exclusive VIDEO REPORT on the intensive events. The business delegation entitled »Access to Finance for Start-ups of South-East Europe« consisted of the President and Vice President of TBAA, a representative of the Istanbul stock exchange, managing director of the Technology Park and the Centre for Entrepreneurship of the Technical University in Istanbul, the President of the Business Incubator LabX, and the President of VZMD and a member of the Executive Board of the European Federation of Investors - Better Finance.

Immediately upon arrival in Tirana, the delegation took part in the business breakfast with the Albanian Chamber of Commerce at the Sheraton Hotel, where the representatives of the local business community discussed about the investment climate in Albania. The reception was followed by the meeting with the Vice President of the Turkish Government and diplomatic corps, which was later followed by the reception at the local university, which was also the venue of the round table where the members of delegation presented methods and viewpoints for persuading a business angel to invest in a company.

As a part of the intensive program of the delegation, the VZMD President in Tirana also paid visit to the Summit of the South-East European Cooperation Process, which was visited by the high representatives of 13 countries, EU and OSCE, who addressed crucial issues of the region, among others, the possibilities to strengthen economic cooperation, mutual and foreign investments. On this occasion, Mr. Verbič talked with numerous participants, namely the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Albania and Turkey, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Macedonia and high representatives of the economy and diplomacy, one of them being the Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia in Tirana, His Excellency Bojan Bertoncelj. Having visited headquarters of several companies, the delegation stopped by at the Innovation Center of Tirana, which was the venue of the central event of the international community - Startup Grid. The day ended with the gala dinner at Sofra e Ariut, the famous restaurant in Tirana.

During the business breakfast, the chancellor of the University Marin Barleti and the managing director of the Technological Park of the Technical University in Istanbul signed a memorandum, while the participants discussed about the possibilities of collaboration among Istanbul, Albanian and other regional security stock exchanges. After the visit to the Turkish Embassy, the delegation was received by the Albanian Minister of Innovation. The business lunch at the restaurant of the Sky Tower hotel was followed by the meeting with the Albanian-Turkish Chamber of Commerce, and the round table at the School of Economics in Tirana. The visit to Albania ended with a gala dinner, which was attended by over 50 prominent guests, representatives of the politics, the economy, institutions and diplomacy.

At the crack of dawn on the third day, the delegation set off for Kosovo to participate in the international conference of the Kosovo Business Angel Network (KOSBAN). The introductory speech was delivered by the local Ambassadors of Norway and Turkey, where one of the keynote speakers was the Kosovo Minister of Trade and Industry. On this occasion, KOSBAN also signed important Memorandum of collaboration. Beside high representatives of diplomacy and the economy, the conference was also attended by the Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia in Kosovo, His Excellency Miljan Majhen, who visited the frequented presentation area of VZMD's business-investor programs Invest to Slovenia – investo.si and International Investors` Network – invest-to.net, together with the organizers. The series of events continued at the local Universum College, where the delegation members talked with students about entrepreneurship, innovations and investments as well as potentials and perspectives of Kosovo. The events ended with the five startup pitch presentations from Kosovo and the address of the managing director of the local Innovation Center. The intensive day ended with the gala dinner at the Emirald hotel which, beside 30 prominent guests, was also attended by the local Slovenian Ambassador.

On the fourth day, the delegation headed for Skopje, where the eminent Bushi resort was the venue of the business conference, and thereafter the Memorandum with the government agency for investments »Invest in Macedonia« and the Chamber of Commerce of Macedonia was signed. The events were attended by numerous prominent representatives of the economy, politics and diplomacy who were considerably interested in visiting the presentation area of the VZMD's international business-investor programs. After the business breakfast on the fifth day, the delegation members set off for Tetovo, where the Memorandum of understanding was signed with the local Mayor and the President of the Chamber of Commerce of North-West Macedonia (OEMVP), following the reception organized by the regional business community. Upon signing, a visit was paid to the Technological, industrial and development park of Tetovo (TIDZ) which was presented by the Mayor and the park management.

Therefore, within five days, the business delegation took part in multiple receptions at universities, ministries, innovation centers, business incubators and business breakfasts, lunches and gala dinners, with high representatives of the economy, politics, enterprises and institutions.

The VZMD President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, joined the delegation from the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, immediately after the election to the International Fund for Cooperation and Partnership of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea (BSCSIF), while the journey from Skopje was continued in Paris, where he traditionally participated in the OECD Forum. The extensive, already sixth this year's tour of the international business-investor programs investo.si and invest-to.net was concluded by the VZMD President in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, by actively participating in the European Commission delegation »Mission for Growth«.

After fruitful presentations in the past two years in Abu Dhabi, Astana, Almaty, Baku, Belgrade, Bled, Bratislava, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Buffalo, Bucharest, Cape Town, Celje, Dubai, Vienna, Eindhoven, Grodno, Helsinki, Istanbul, Yaroslavl, Qatar, Kiev, Copenhagen, Ljubljana, Madrid, Minsk, Montevideo, Moscow, New Delhi, New York, Ouagadougou, Paris, Piran, Praia, Pristina, Reykjavik, Skopje, Tehran, Tirana, Tokyo, Toronto, Warsaw, Vitebsk, Wiesbaden in Zagreb, the international business-investor programs of VZMD continue to provide efficient presence and presentation for its partners on five continents this year as well.