News

TAIPEI - active participation and numerous meetings as a part of the European Commission »Mission for growth« delegation

The international delegation of the European Commission called »Mission for Growth« visited Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, last week. A member of delegation was also the Slovenian representative – President of the PanSlovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD), Mr. Kristjan Verbič. The participants of the delegation were also 59 European companies and institutions who met with over 400 entrepreneurs and business people from Taiwan.

The Taipei World Trade Center, a complex of one of the highest skyscrapers in the world, the Taipei 101, was the venue of the high visibility international conference on Thursday »How to do business in Taiwan and in the EU? Opportunities, challenges and success stories«.

The introductory speech was delivered by the local Minister of the National Development Council, Duh Tyzz-Jiu, which was followed by signing of the Agreement on Cooperation with the Enterprise Europe Network (Enterprise Europe Network). The Agreement was signed by the leader of the »Mission for Growth« delegation, Director-General of the Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General at the European Commission, Mr. Daniel Calleja, and the President of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), Mr. Francis Liang (in the photo with Mr. Verbič).

The conference was followed by the organized business meetings of representatives of institutions and companies, where the VZMD President talked with the TAITRA President, the lead of the European Economic and Trade Office, Mr. Frederic Laplanche, and the President of the European Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan, Mr. Bernard Barkey. The event was concluded with the gala dinner hosted by the local deputy Minister of the Economy Shih-Chao Cho and the TAITRA President.

On Friday, the members of the delegation visited the Neihu Technology Park and Delta technology corporation, and thereafter they visited the Computex Taipei 2015, which is the largest Asian fair related to the information and communication technologies.

As a part of the sixth this year's tour of the international business-investor programs: Invest to Slovenia (investo.si) and International Investors` Network (invest-to.net) prior to the trip to Taipei, the President of VZMD visited also Paris, Skopje, Pristina, Tirana, Baku and Madrid.

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.

PARIS - beginning of the OECD Forum 2015, with the attention-grabbing question of the VZMD President addressed to the highest representative of the European Central Bank - »different criteria for stress tests and unequal treatment of particular countries

In Paris, yesterday marked the beginning of the OECD Forum 2015, whose this year's theme is »Investing in the Future: People, Planet, Prosperity«. The forum addressing key issues such as investment, inclusive growth, climate and sustainable development goals has been attended by high representatives of countries, institutions, the economy and diplomacy.

At the focal round table entitled »Unlocking Investment«, which followed the opening, the president of VZMD - PanSlovenian Shareholders` Association and Board member of the European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users (Better Finance), Mr. Kristjan Verbič, as the first discussant, posed a question for the President of the Supervisory Council of the European Central Bank (ECB), Ms. Danièle Nouy, and underlined the importance of trust, primarily of individual investors, and kindly asked for the clarification of and opinion on the extremely different criteria for performing stress tests which significantly affect investors, and which, in Slovenia, brought about highly contentious expropriations. (you can view the question and answer by clicking on the link starting from 59:29 minute onwards: http://webcastcdn.viewontv.com/client/oecd/forum2015/02062015_blue.html)

The focal panel was also attended by Mr. Ronald Cohen, President of the G8 Social Impact Investment Taskforce, Arda Ermut, President of the Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Turkey (ISPAT), İlhami Koç, Vice President of Isbank, Eric Labaye, President of McKinsey Global Institute, Richard Trumka, Thierry de Longuemar, Vice President of Finance and Risk Management, Asian Development Bank (ADB), and President of Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC), who also commented on the question posed by Mr. Verbič. The latter has participated in the OECD Forum for the fourth time consecutively where he also posed a weighty question regarding the expropriated bondholders and shareholders of the Slovenian banks for the Forum keynote speaker and the Prime Minister of Slovenia, Ms. Alenka Bratušek last year.

Following the yesterday's opening address by the representative of the United Nations, Ms. Helen Clark, OECD Secretary General, Ms. Angela Gurríe and the French Minister of Environment, Sustainable Development and Energy, Ms. Ségolène Royal, own opinions and views will be delivered by 226 speakers out of which 19 ministers, prime ministers and presidents of countries such as Czech Republic, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, South Korea, Mexico, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkey in two days.

Under the sixth this year's tour of the international business-investor programs: Invest to Slovenia (investo.si) and International Investors` Network (invest-to.net) Mr. Verbič arrived in Paris from Skopje, where he participated in the international delegation of the business delegation of business angles, who visited Albania, Kosovo and FYR Macedonia, but the road will take him to Taipei where he will participate in the delegation of the European Commission's Mission for Growth.

MERCATOR, d.d., Ljubljana - Organized collection of proxy authorizations for exercising shareholder voting rights

SEOnet.ljse.si, 22.05.2015

Pursuant to the Rules and Regulations of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange, d.d, and the relevant legislation, the company Poslovni sistem Mercator, d.d., hereby informs the shareholders and the public of the following:

The company Poslovni sistem Mercator, d.d., encourages its shareholders to actively exercise their rights and for this purpose begins with organized collection of proxy authorizations. This allows shareholders to exercise their voting rights without attending the Shareholders Assembly, thus directly contributing to company’s governance.

BAKU - continuation of the 6th this year's tour of the international business-investor programs of VZMD - a return visit including participation in the General Meeting of the International Fund for Cooperation & Partnership of the Black Sea & the Caspian

Following successful visit to Madrid and the international conferences of IFLN and AEMEC, the PanSlovenian Investors' & Shareholders` Association (VZMD) President, Kristjan Verbič, arrived to the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku. There he will, at the invitation of the President and Vice President of the International Fund for Cooperation and Partnership of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea (BSCSIF), Ismail Safi and Chingiz Abdullayev, take part in the 14th session of the General Meeting and the Board of Directors of the influential international organization that brings together 27 countries.

Following the evening reception and gala dinner, the participants of the General Assembly will be, among others, addressed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Elmar Mammadyarov, thereafter numerous issues related to the Black and Caspian Sea region will be addressed. Among other things, the subject of discussions will be the economic, social and political implications of permanent conflicts in the region and possibilities for their resolving. The participants will touch upon collaboration possibilities with other regions, countries and continents, where the high representatives of individual countries will participate.

This visit of the VZMD President takes place in the context of the sixth this year's tour of the international business-investor programs: Invest to Slovenia (investo.si) and International Investors` Network (invest-to.net) which is thus already the second visit to Baku, following participation in the strong economic delegation, during the visit of Janeza Janša, Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, and Minister of Economic Development and Technology, Radovan Žerjav, at the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, dr. Ilham Aliyev, in 2013 – click on the image and watch the EXCLUSIVE VIDEO.

MADRID - the two-day international conferences of AEMEC and IFLN »The New Capitalism of Citizens«, with over 200 prominent guests from all over the world, ended last night with the high visibility prize-awarding ceremony

20150518 101018

On Monday, Casa America, the renowned Madrid's palace, was the venue of the official opening of the 4th annual congress of the Spanish Association of Minority Shareholders of Listed Companies (AEMEC) and the 3rd conference of the International Financial Litigation Network (IFLN). At the invitation of organizers, both events were traditionally also attended by the PanSlovenian Investors' & Shareholders' Association (VZMD) President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, which marked the beginning of the this year's sixth tour of the VZMD international business-investor programs: Invest to Slovenia (investo.si) and International Investors' Network (invest-to.net).

To this end, the AEMEC and IFLN organizations designed a joint program, within which they provided countless interesting panels in two days which were attended by over 200 prominent guests, representatives of European institutions and politics, the economy and heads of influential law firms from all over the world. The introductory speech was delivered by the organizer of the event, Mrs. Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the former European Commissioner, and Mr. Javier Cremades, the President of IFLN, AEMEC Secretary General and co-founder of one of the most influential Spanish law firms Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo, and Mr. Daniel Calleja, Director-General of the Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General at the European Commission.

20150518 104917 The speakers from Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom and USA talked about multiple legal proceedings which they had come up against as investors representatives. On this occasion Mr. Verbič, as a part of the discussion led by the former President of the European Parliament. Mr. Jose Maria Gil Robles, stressed the importance of trust of investors and anew brought attention to the cases of expropriated investors in banks, where the former holders of bonds and shares of Slovenian banks belong.

Exactly the problems of expropriated and double-crossed bank shareholders have recently reinforced, albeit effective, long-standing collaboration between VZMD and AEMEC and IFLN. The VZMD President has, on arguable grounds, pointed out the problems of cancellation of shares and bonds already at the international conferences of the World Federation of Investors (WFI) and IFLN in 2013, when visiting the Spanish Parliament and the Central Bank, at the last year's IFLN conference in New York he exhibited the activities related to investors expropriations and which have already been initiated and are being planned by the VZMD.

20150519 153253 The conference attendees also discussed about new raising capital models such as "crowdfunding" as well as new communication models, connections and relationships among individual investors. The VZMD President joined the working lunch at the headquarters of Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo, where the Executive Board of IFLN mapped out the strategy of future activities. In the evening, the most prominent guests and participants headed for the renown palace El Escorial for informal gathering. The high visibility conference ended last night, with the prize-awarding ceremony for the »Shareholders-friendly Award«, which was received by the Repsol company. Such awards were also received by the two Slovenian companies in 2011 and 2012 (EXCLUSIVE VIDEO from the Ljubljana Skyscraper (Nebotičnik) and EXCLUSIVE VIDEO from the Ljubljana Castle). The award "Best initiative for the Minority, for the politic involvement with the shareholders" was received by Iberdrola company, whereas the special academic award was received by prof. Gaudencio Esteban from the University of Madrid.

Following the visit to Madrid Mr. Verbič is setting off for Baku, where he will, at the invitation of the organizers, attend the 14th session of the General meeting of the Board of Directors of the International Fund for Cooperation and Partnership of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea(BSCSIF).

VIDEO REPORT and a brief VIDEO IMPRESSION from the Better Finance, the high visibility international conference in Brussels - readily applicable also to the circumstances and perspectives in Slovenia

Last week, Brussels was the venue of the international conference of the European Federation of Investors and Financial Service users - Better Finance, entitled»A Capital Markets Union for Growth, Jobs and Citizens«. As part of the 5th this year's tour of the international business-investor programs of VZMD: Invest to Slovenia and International Investors` Network, the high visibility conference was also attended by the President of VZMD, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, together with the team of VZMD.tv / investo.TV, which produced the OFFICIAL VIDEO COVERAGE of the conference in English as well as the VIDEO IMPRESSION in Slovenian.

New developments & official reports of the Slovenian banks persistently continue to disclose lies of the protagonists of expropriation & cancellation of shares and bonds - all nationalized banks closed 2014 with capital adequacy extremely higher than in t

VZMD has been very seriously pointing out that to a long series of already known and disclosed facts, which expressly prove the lies in the claims made by the Bank of Slovenia, Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Slovenia and the Government of the Republic of Slovenia on the necessity of expropriations of shareholders and holders of hybrid and subordinated bonds of NLB, NKBM, Abanka, Banka Celje, Probanka and Factor banka, this type of new facts have been constantly attached.

Over the last few months, VZMD has - following the publication of results of the stress test of the European Central Bank (ECB) which NLB and NKBM failed, which, according to the claims of the Bank of Slovenia, was supposed to be the "proof" of the necessity of the expropriation of their private owners and subordinate creditors one year before - cautioned to extremely unrealistic pessimistic assumptions and forecasts applied in the tests of the two banks. Now that NLB and NKBM have published their revised annual reports for 2014, it has been become indisputably provable that it was not only forecasts of macroeconomic indicators that were downright unrealistic, but also the forecasts of capital adequacy of banks! In order for banks to pass or fail a stress test, it was pivotal for the ECB to use forecasts of the movements in the common equity tier ratio (CET1) of a bank, and to what extent the actual value (acknowledged by auditors) of CET1 at NLB and NKBM exceeds the forecast applied in the stress test, is summarized in the following table:

CET1 ratio for NLB at the end of 2014

CET1 ratio for NKBM at the end of 2014

stress test

(baseline forecast)¹

stress test

(adverse forecast)¹

actual²

stress test

(baseline forecast)¹

stress test

(adverse forecast)¹

actual³

13.8%

8.6%

22.7%

15.2%

11.4%

25.8%

¹www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/aggregatereportonthecomprehensiveassessment201410.en.pdf, str. 153
²www.nlb.si/nlb/nlb-portal/slo/o-banki/vlagatelji/financna-porocila/letno_porocilo_2014.pdf, str. 45
³www.nkbm.si/downloadfile.ashx?fileid=5418, str. 9

At the same time, April was the month of repeated corroboration of the fact, which was frequently pointed out by VZMD, whereby at the request of the European Commission (EC), also after August 2013, according to claims of the Banks of Slovenia, Ministry of Finance and Government of the Republic of Slovenia the cancellation of shares and subordinated bonds was supposedly a necessary prerequisite for the state-aided recapitalization of a bank, that EC has never required such cancellation from other countries and will not do so in the future

VZMD has been repeatedly pointing out, that EC had never required any intervention regarding subordinated bonds when on September 3, 2013, the Republic of Austria was issued a permission for the state aidto the Hypo Group Alpe Adria bank
(http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-811_en.htm), neither did it do so on November 27, 2013, when the Republic of Italy was issued a permission for the state aid to the Monte dei Paschi di Siena bank (http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-1174_en.htm). Nevertheless, VZMD is now also cautioning that EC did not require so either on April 9 this year, when the Republic of Ireland was issued a permission for the state aid to the Permanent TSB bank (http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-4755_en.htm); as this bank's shares continue to be traded with (http://markets.ft.com/research/Markets/Tearsheets/Summary?s=ILB:ISE) as well as their subordinated bonds
(www.ise.ie/Market-Data-Announcements/Debt/Individual-Debt-Instrument-Data/ShowSecTranche/?refNo=3931&trancheID=55536).

Therefore, VZMD would like to call upon the Bank of Slovenia, Ministry of Finance and the Government of the Republic of Slovenia again to hold back misleading and obscuring practices and to publicly state that the empirical evidence and the actual state of affairs already a while ago unequivocally proved the uniqueness of the measures of expropriation of shareholders and holders of hybrid and subordinated bonds conducted in NLB, NKBM, Abanka, Banka Celje, Probanka and Factor banka, and to enter into a constructive dialogue with all aggrieved parties

BRUSSELS, EINDHOVEN - following attendance at high visibility conferences of Better Finance and of Federation of European Stock Exchanges setting off for the congress of the European Business Angel Network - continuing the fruitful tour of the internation

The annual congress of the European Business Angel Network (EBAN) in Eindhoven - by invitation of Ms. Candace Johnson, the EBAN President, and Mr. Baybars Altuntas, the Vice President – is for the next two days the destination of the President of VZMD, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, who yesterday arrived there from Brussels. In addition to the congress attended by over 300 business people, investors and representatives of the financial industry, specifically the start-up capital, from all over the world, the gala dinner and reception was taking place for the invitees where EBAN 2015 prizes have been awarded. This three-day congress is, however, focusing on creating, financing and completing global success stories in the region of Europe, Middle East and Africa.

As part of the fifth this year's tour of the international business-investor programs of VZMD: Invest to Slovenia (investo.si) and International Investors` Network (invest-to.net), the VZMD President, as a member of the Executive Board of the European Federation of FinancialServices Users (Better Finance), in Brussels took part beforehand in the international conference »A Capital Markets Union for Growth, Jobs and Citizens«, and thereafter also in the »CEO Summit« of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE) entitled »Capital Markets Union: How can exchanges contribute?«.

This conference organized by Better Finance which addressed the issue - by all means also applicable to the circumstances in the Republic of Slovenia - how to attract savings to capital markets and real investments, was attended by numerous prominent guests, among others members of the European Parliament , representatives of the European Commission and influential international associations. One of the round tables was the place where the members of the European Parliament: Philippe de Backer (ALDE), Markus Ferber (EPP), Elisa Ferreira (S&D), Sven Giegold (European Greens) and Morten Messerschmidt (ECR) expressed their viewpoints, the participants were addressed by Mr. Jonathan Hill, European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union (talking to Mr. Verbič in the photo).

The numerous prominent guests participated both in the conference and the evening's reception of the Federation of European Securities Exchange, among others the members of the European Parliament: Markus Ferber, Othmar Karas, Georgios Kyrtsos, Petr Jezek, Michael Theurer, Cora van Nieuwenhuizen, Sirpa Pietikäinen and Beatrix von Storch, representatives of stock exchanges Athens Exchange Group, Bolsas y Mercados Españoles, Bucharest Stock Exchange, Budapest Stock Exchange, Deutsche Börse, Euronext, Irish Stock Exchange, London Metal Exchange, Luxembourg Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, Oslo Stock Exchange, SIX Swiss Exchange, Vienna Stock Exchange in Warsaw Stock Exchange, as well as representatives of the organizations Better Finance, European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA), EuropeanIssuers, European Federation of Accountants and many others.

Nevertheless, Mr. Verbič was actively engaged in the Executive Board Meeting and the General Meeting of Better Finance, during the two-day trip in Brussels, but before that he had paid visit to the headquarters of Better Finance and met at the working lunch with its managing director, Mr. Guillaume Prache, with whom he talked also about the international dimension of efforts of VZMD to protect the rights and interests of the expropriated investors in Slovenian banks which appeared on the very same day in the official news of the Brussels Federation.

20150507 215114 The event in Brussels was also followed by the team of VZMD.tv / investo.TV, which will produce the exclusive news coverage (like the VIDEO last year and years before).

As always at these events, the efficient presentation of companies, institutions and investment projects included in investo.si and invest-to.net was properly arranged.

After fruitful presentations in the past two years in in Abu Dhabi, Astana, Almaty, Baku, Belgrade, Bled, Bratislava, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Buffalo, Bucharest, Cape Town, Celje, Dubai, Vienna, Grodno, Helsinki, Istanbul, Yaroslavl, Qatar, Kiev, Copenhagen, Ljubljana, Madrid, Minsk, Montevideo, Moscow, New Delhi, New York, Ouagadougu, Paris, Piran, Praja, Reykjavik, Tehran, Tokio, Toronto, Warsaw, Vitebsk, Wiesbaden and 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.

If you would like to take part in our events and activities, you are kindly invited to contact the coordinator of the program investo.si at VZMD by phone at 031 770 771 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The District Court and the Higher Court officially acknowledge VZMD arguments concerning the unconstitutionality of expropriations, however the proceedings have been suspended until the final decision has been reached by the Constitutional Court of the Re

It has been a year and a half since the beliefs and arguments of VZMD on unconstitutionality of expropriation of investors in Slovenian banks were also validated by the Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia and the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia - but in this year the unconstitutionality has started gaining on official recognition and approval by the courts. The position that the amended Banking Act (ZBan-1L) - which retroactively created the basis for and triggered expropriation - is in conflict with the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia was officially taken by the District Court in Ljubljana as early as on January 30, 2015, and thereafter by the Higher Court in Ljubljana on March 13, 2015.

On account of its findings, the District Court in Ljubljana filed a request at the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia for a review of constitutionality of Articles 261.a, 261.b, 261.c, 261.d, 261.e, 347 and 350.a of ZBan-1, indicating that »it judges that the disputed legal provisions pose a disproportionate violation of private property and consequently the breach of Article 33 of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia«, and that »it shall not acknowledge the hypotheses of the Republic of Slovenia that it has fulfilled its contractual obligations «, and that »it substanitally supports the requests filed by the National Council and the Ombudsman as well as the initiatives by Tadej Kotnik from Ljubljana and others represented by Miha Kunič, the attorney«. The request was initially assigned the reference number U-I-15/15 at the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, but at the court meeting on February 19, 2015 the request was attached to the case U-I-295/13 - Tadej Kotnik and others.

On account of its findings, the Higher Court in Ljubljana filed a request at the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia for a review of constitutionality of Articles 253, 253.a, 260.a, 261.a, 261.b, 261.c, 261.e and 262.a of ZBan-1 on March 13, 2015, stating that »they entail a severe violation of existing entitlements thus contradicting with the principles of legitimate expectations, which is why the court gives rise to doubts as to whether such drastic violation of private property is truly proportionate to the public benefit pursued by the measures« and that the »measures affect only the creditors and holders of financial instruments from which the bank's qualified liabilities result, whereas the all other creditors and the financial system have benefits thereof«. The request was assigned the reference number U-I-39/15, and it is also expected to be attached to the case U-I-295/13 at one of the future meetings – Tadej Kotnik and others.

The courts' acknowledgments of beliefs of VZMD and other expropriated persons concerning unconstitutionality of cancellation of their shares and bonds are nevertheless encouraging, however they also have its negative sides as the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia was left with the entire burden to reach a decision whereby the other courts have also suspended proceedings in which VZMD and other expropriated persons do not invoke neither the Banking Act nor the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia, until the final decision has been reached by the Constitutional Court. This was also the case of the legal action with which VZMD and another individual expropriated person have been trying to prove voidness of entry of cancellations into the commercial register at the District Court in Ljubljana - the hearing as of April 15, 2015 ended within a few minutes by the judge stating that proceedings are suspended until the final decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia on the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of the Banking Act has been reached, although all claimants' inferences rest solely on the provisions of the Corporations Act (ZGD).

While having such approach, all courts' decisions are becoming increasingly dependent on the final decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, and the decision of this Court on the answer to its questions raised at the EU Court in Luxembourg, on November 6, 2014, VZMD decided to take part in the proceedings before the EU Court presenting its standpoints of the case in writing and drafting the standpoints at the highest professional level. For this reason, VZMD invited a world-class expert in EU law to help prepare written standpoints and to defend them together with the attorney Kunič during the oral hearing in Luxembourg, should the EU court schedule one in the course of the proceedings.

The expropriated bondholders and shareholders of banks who would like to become a part of multiple proceedings under the auspices of VZMD, should contact us at the telephone number +386 51 770 771 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

EXPO Milano 2015 - the upcoming World's Fair in immediate neighborhood of Slovenia also offers a host of business opportunities - particularly through the Slovenian pavilion and expected economic delegations

On Friday, April 17, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia (GZS) with the support of SPIRIT Slovenia hosted a presentation of business opportunities and events on the occasion of active participation and presence at the EXPO Milano 2015 World's Fair. Over the six-month period - from May 1 to October 31 - the Italian city of Milan will be the venue of the renowned World's Fair, where more than 140 participating countries will have an opportunity to exchange ideas and collective solutions, this time focusing on ecology and food. EXPO Milano is estimated to be visited by more than 20 million visitors from all over the world, who may visit 54 separate pavilions of individual countries on the 1.1 million square meters of the exhibition areas, among them also the prominent separate pavilion of Slovenia which will take the center stage especially on June 19 when the Slovenian national day will take place.

The attendees of the Friday's presentation were addressed by the Minister of Economic Development and Technology of the Republic of Slovenia, Mr. Zdravko Počivalšek, and GZS President, Mr. Samo Hribar Milič, whereby numerous possibilities of collaboration, several economic delegations as well as opportunities for Slovenian companies and institutions were also presented.

Within the scope of the international business-investor programs Invest to Slovenia – investo.si and International Investors' Network – invest-to.net the event was also visited by the President of the PanSlovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD), Mr. Kristjan Verbič. VZMD welcomes the ambitious plans of Slovenia, which will be presented at the 800 square meter sized separate pavilion of modern design and entirely produced by Slovenian companies.

The upcoming Expo is all the more interesting for Slovenian companies, tourism and economy in general, because will be taking place in the immediate vicinity and neighborhood of Slovenia, and in the pavilion, along with the dynamic program and offer, it will be possible to hold meetings, including in a dedicated VIP area. However, more than 20,000 companies have already registered on the event's electronic platform, which is why VZMD appeals to all the interested to take advantage of the opportunities brought by EXPO Milano 2015.

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

If you would like to participate in our events and activities please contact the investo.si program coordinator at VZMD by telephone at +386 31 770 771 or e-mail info@investo.si.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - Slovenian economic delegation in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, along with active participation of the international business-investor programs of VZMD: investo.si & invest-to.net

With the support of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce of Slovenia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) was this week's visiting point of the Slovenian economic delegation together with the representativs of twelve companies and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia. As part of efforts of the international business-investor programs of the PanSlovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD): Invest to Slovenia (investo.si) and International Investors` Network (invest-to.net), Mr. Kristjan Verbič is currently in UAE as a member of the delegation. (photo with Omar Abdulaziz Khan, International Offices Director of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry)

Immediately upon arrival to Dubai on Tuesday the members of the delegation took part in business meetings in the famous tallest skyscraper in the world, Burj Khalifa, and they also met up with the Slovenian business community over there. On Wednesday, they all participated in the Business Forum of the Abu Dhabi's Chamber of Commerce and Industry, where formal and informal talks between members of the delegation and esteemed local participants were facilitated. In parallel with the active participation of Mr. Verbič, the discussions about opportunities of investment and business collaboration and strategic partnerships were entered into.

At the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry yesterday, B2B meetings were held, whereby the VZMD President had 8 official planned appointments, in addition to the other expressed interests in meetings and discussions. Participation in this economic delegation is already this year's third tour of investo.si and invest-to.net programa, following the January visit to Qatar and the March visit to Belarus and Russia.

After fruitful presentations in the past two years in Astana, Almaty, Baku, Belgrade, Bled, Bratislava, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Buffalo, Bucharest, Cape Town, Celje, Dubai, Vienna, Grodno, Helsinki, Istanbul, Yaroslavl, Qatar, Kiev, Copenhagen, Ljubljana, Madrid, Minsk, Montevideo, Moscow, New Delhi, New York, Ouagadougou, Paris, Piran, Praja, Reykjavik, Tehran, Tokio, Torontu, Warsaw, Vitebsk, Wiesbadn andZagreb, VZMD's international business-investor programs continue to provide efficient presence and presentations to its partners on five continents also this year.

If you would like to participate in our events and activities please contact the investo.si program coordinator at VZMD by telephone at +386 31 770 771 or e-mail info@investo.si.

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