The Pan-Slovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD), has filed three lawsuits through law office on Friday, January 17. The three lawsuits were filed against the banks at the District Courts in Ljubljana and Maribor, and they were filed in the name of 349 owners. By filing these three lawsuits VZMD has requested that the two District Courts declare the nullity of the simplified reduction and simultaneous increase of the banks' nominal capital, by which all the owners of subordinated bonds and shares of these banks have been expropriated. At this moment VZMD cannot yet reveal details of the lawsuit strategies and legal bases for them, but they have been formed as a result of cooperation between VZMD expert assistants and top experts in the field of register law.

Act amending Banking Act (ZBan-1L), which was – in spite of the official negative opinions of some acclaimed legal experts and the veto of the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia – for the second time approved by the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, literally prohibits the expropriated subordinated bank creditors from suing the debtor banks because of their expropriation. This is in striking contrast with provisions regarding bond prospectuses which define such lawsuits as basic legal remedies in case prospectus provisions have been violated, therefore the authors of Act amending Banking Act (ZBan-1L) have added to it a paragraph which declares all such prospectus provisions void. Legal protection of the bank subordinated creditors has thus practically ceased to exist.

The constitutional principle which says that everyone has the constitutional right to a legal remedy has thus been very obviously and radically violated. Therefore the ZBan-1L authors have tried to conceal this violation by introducing a provision which says that it is possible to bring a lawsuit against the Bank of Slovenia, but the lawsuit is to be filed by a bank itself. It is absurd because (even if we disregard the fact that members of a bank's Management Board are appointed by The Bank of Slovenia, which can also remove them from their post at any time) the cancellation of a bank's subordinated debt means that a bank benefits from it and it is not at a loss, therefore a Court is not supposed to approve a legal interest for a lawsuit against this cancellation. 

European Federation of Financial Services Users (EuroFinUse), a highly esteemed  European association whose influential member is also the PanSlovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD), was in the framework of European Public Affairs Awards this year again nominated for the European Non-Governmental Organisation of the Year « (NGO of the Year).

EuroFinUse was nominated for this prestigious award in 2012 when it was represented at the award ceremony in Albert Hall in Brussels also by VZMD president Kristjan Verbič, M.Sc., as a member of the EuroFinUse supreme body – Board of Directors. On this occasion Mr Verbič also met the organisers and the assembled representatives of the influential EU lobby and advisory groups (in the photo Mr Verbič together with Jana Mittermaier, Director of the winning non-governmental organisation - Transparency International EU Office (TI-EU), Christian Wennig, Secretary General  of the Union of European Federalists' (UEF), and Despina Symons-Pirovolidou, Director of the European Bureau for Conservation & Development (EBCD).

VZMD kindly invites all to submit your vote by clicking on the link: www.epaawards.com/voting. You can submit your vote until 31st January 2014, and the awards are to be granted on 19th February 2014 in Brussels. 

EuroFinuse.org, 09.01.2014

Following the filling of three lawsuits by VZMD, the Slovenian Constitutional Court acknowledged the legal interest of the 293 initiators united by VZMD who were all owners of subordinated bonds of three Slovenian banks who were expropriated on December 18.

VZMD demanded a constitutional review of the Banking Act and the Court accepted the hearing of two VZMD initiatives. However, the suspension of the Act was rejected due to the allegedly misleading claims by the Slovenian Government, the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Slovenian concerning the “catastrophic consequences” and “jeopardy of the entire financial system in the Republic of Slovenia”, along with the fact that they claim that the holders will only have “material consequences”.

The PanSlovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD) last Thursday at the Ljubljana Administrative Court filed three lawsuits through Kunič Law Office against the Bank of Slovenia, in the name of 293 owners of subordinated bonds of three Slovenian banks who were expropriated on December 18. The lawsuits challenge the measure of cancellation of NLB subordinated bonds (in the name of 229 owners of NLB bonds of 26th debenture issue), Factor banka (in the name of 24 owners of Factor banka bonds of 9th debenture issue), and Probanka (in the name of 40 owners of Probanka bonds of 9th, 11th and 12th debenture issues). These bonds were, due to the Bank of Slovenia exceptional measures which were carried out on 18 December 2013, cancelled without any explanation, without any compensation, and on top of this the expropriated owners of bonds were not even allowed to examine a decision about the cancellation, which has been justified by the Bank of Slovenia by claiming that there is supposed to be confidential information in these decisions!?!

Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia at the meeting held on Wednesday, December 18th, adopted a decision to accept into hearing the initiatives for constitutional review of the Banking Act (ZBan-1L), which were proposed on 4th and 10th December by the Pan-Slovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD) which submitted the initiatives through Kunič Law Office in the name of 290 holders of bonds. The Constitutional Court accepts for hearing only those initiatives whose initiators have expressed legal interest, and the judges of the Constitutional Court have rejected statement made by the Slovenian Government which has been claiming that the initiators do not show legal interest and therefore the Court should dismiss their initiative.    

The Constitutional Court has also accepted the suggestion of the initiators that their initiative should be treated preferentially. It has even decided that the initiative will be treated with absolute precedence, which means that the procedure of the constitutional review of the amending act continued on Wednesday.  

Unfortunately, the Constitutional Court has rejected the proposal of initiators to withold the implementation of this statute until the Court's final decision is made. It seems that the misleading claims of the Slovenian Government, the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Slovenia about the »catastrophic consequences« and »jeopardy of the entire financial system in the Republic of Slovenia« which would be the result of such witholding, along with the fact that the holders will only have »material« consequences, convinced the Constitutional Court Judges that the proposed witholding is not necessary.  

The cancellation of shares and subordinated bonds of the Slovenian banks has already taken place, synchronously with the Constitutional Court Session. A-bank has informed its investors that their shares and subordinated bonds do not exists any more at 15:47, NLB has done a similar thing at 16:51, and NKBM at 19:12.

None of the three banks or boards thought it would be appropriate to express their regret, let alone apologize to their investors and creditors – A-bank board has in the previously mentioned statement even ludicrously written that A-bank »as a bank important for the system, with stable operating profit, will continue to pay special attention to ensure security and stability of operations". 

Before the Wednesday's session of the Slovenian Institutional Court VZMD submitted to the Institutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia through Kunič Law Office in the name of 290 holders of bonds the initiatives for constitutional review, or a written reply to the statement by the Slovenian Government about both VZMD initiatives for constitutional review of the Banking Act (ZBan-1L). VZMD has, with these two initiatives, also suggested witholding implementation of disputable amending act. Some VZMD experts think that this opinion - which the Slovenian Government adopted and published on Friday, 13th December 2013, after being asked by the Constitutional Court to make its stand on the initiatives for constitutional review - is absolutely misleading.

Another initiative has been added to the above mentioned initiatives, namely the demand of the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia for the constitutional review, and VZMD has emphasized that the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia may indeed reject the initiatives, whereas the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia has been qualified for proposing cases which the Constitutional Court has to deal with. Like VZMD, the National Council has expressed its opinion that a few ZBan-1L provisions are not in accordance with the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the citizens. Thus an especially problematic provision is the one that, in case of state bank recapitalisation, enables cancellation of debts of all those bank creditors who could, in the case of bankruptcy in the sequence of repaying bank's liabilities, have their turn after the holders of bank deposits and senior bonds. There are two other provisions which are rather questionable: a provision that forbids the expropriated creditors to bring a suit against the bank, and a provision which declares as null guarantees in brochures that the risk of non-payment to the holders of subordinated bonds can take place only in case of bank bankruptcy.

However, the Slovenian Government in its Press Release keeps pretending ignorance, because it simply states that »challenged articles do not interfere with the rights of investors«(?!), that it will be possible to eliminate the »consequences of the challenged articles by constitutional appeal« (after previous constant assurances that it will not be necessary to abolish the consequences, because none of them is against the law), that in case of witholding ZBan-1L »procedures of bank assistance will be in contrast with the EU legislation about bailouts« and it has once again concealed that the guidelines of the European Commission from 1st August 2013 are not binding, and the directive is to be made in the following year, and the member states are to enforce it on 1st January 2018, and on top of that in Article 35, which defines bank measures for gathering capital, they talk about the »voluntary transformation of the subordinated instruments into capital on the basis of stimulation«! The Government of the Republic of Slovenia furthermore in the publicly published material – contrary to the principles regarding protection of personal data – reveals the name of the initiator of the constitutional review, a member of the VZMD Expert Council, Tadej Kotnik, PhD, and it gives to the Constitutional Court a statement that the »initiators do not show any legal interest to challenge ZBan-1L«. Although the assessment of legal interest is not the government's domain, VZMD is wondering if the government of the Republic of Slovenia is not familiar with the fact that the initiative was also filed in the name of NLB bond holders of 26th issue – NLB announced last Thursday that the holders of all NLB d.d. subordinated bonds will have their bonds cancelled, in full and without any compensation?! Apart from that VZMD also emphasizes the A-bank announcement stating that all holders of subordinated bonds will lose their entire investment, also by cancellation, which is – according to the claims by the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Slovenia – necessary for establishing enough capital for A-bank operations, and the following day A-bank announced that it will invest 5 million EUR of capital into Argolina d.o.o. company which is involved in »investment engineering«!!!

The Government of the Republic of Slovenia in its Statement - sent to the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia regarding the VZMD proposal for temporary witholding ZBan-1L, given in the framework of U-I-295-13 initiative – is trying to argue the point that witholding ZBan-1L is dangerous on the basis of 8 claims which are, as paragraphs, stated twice: first in point 5 of the summary of material, and then again on the 1st page of the Statement itself, and later it tries to justify these claims one by one.  

Therefore we have decided to publish a reply or arguments of some VZMD experts related to the Statement of the Slovenian Government, according to the individual claims:

1.) The Government claims that »the challenged articles do not interfere with the rights of investors«. Provisions regarding writing-off qualified obligations of a bank which have been entered in ZBan-1 with the amending act ZBan-1L provide that, in case any of the Slovenian banks gets State aid, debts of all those creditors of the bank who were, in case of its bankruptcy in the sequence of paying bank liabilities placed after the holders of bank deposits and ordinary bonds, are simply cancelled. NLB bank has already officially announced that such a measure will befall all holders of subordinated bonds of this bank by using ZBan-1L. The measure of cancelling subordinated bonds before implementing ZBan-1L was not possible even when bank went bankrupt, because bankruptcy does not terminate any of the debtor's liabilities, only the way of their payment changes. In regular operations debts are paid until their due date, in bankruptcy in the order of their subordination – first prior claims (salaries due), then regular (in banks these are deposits and ordinary bonds), then subordinated (subordinated bonds, then hybrid bonds, at the end shares). If there is a lack of bankruptcy mass, then some creditors are left without payment, however not without their debts – if at any time after the end of the bankruptcy procedure some non-registered property of a debtor is found, this is also used for payment of debts which have not been paid yet. Therefore, according to our opinion, it is clear that the intervention into the rights is present and very obvious.    

2. and 3.) The government claims that »the consequences of the challenged articles can be abolished by constitutional complaint« and that »the consequences will only be of material nature«. This is in contradiction with the Government's claims made so far, namely that it will not be necessary to abolish ZBan-1L consequences, because none of them is against the law. Now the Government allows that there will be some consequences which will be against the law, but it says that they will be »only material« - therefore they can be abolished by compensation. It is difficult to judge all the consequences that can have unlawful confiscation of an important part of someone's property. In case of legal entities this can lead to insolvency and consequently to bankruptcy and termination of business operations, including the termination of employment of all employees, which can be difficult to solve with compensation.

4.) The Government claims that "ZBan-1L requires that the creditors, whose claims were the subject to a measure, do not have losses that are bigger than the losses they would have in case of bank's bankruptcy«. NLB, d.d., announcement from 12 December, cited under item 1, explicitly states that the use of ZBan-1 »probably means writing-off of all currently valid subordinated instruments at NLB d.d.« STA has also already reported that subordinated NLB d.d. creditors will lose an entire investment with this measure. Thus the Government's claim could only hold true if, in case of NLB bankruptcy and the use of all valid legal provisions, none of the subordinated creditors of this bank received any payment.    

However, that this, in case of subordinated bonds of NLB d.d. as an issuing bank, is not true, can be proved by a simple calculation: if NLB d.d. went bankrupt, then all loans given to this bank by the state (Republic of Slovenia) as its main owner, would turn into bank's assets, according to the 498 Article of the Companies Act (ZGD-1). According to the latest accounting statements from 30 September 2013 the state had in NLB, d.d. a deposit in the amount of 1.36 billion euros, which means that even if, in case of insolvency NLB capital was negative in the amount of 1.36 billion euros, the capital would with this conversion again reach point zero, which in terms of bookkeeping suffices that all creditors of the company are entirely paid, including those most subordinated ones. In principle it is possible that there were additional losses that would arise as a result of cashing bankrupt's estate, but on the day NLB, d.d. officially announced that its subordinated creditors will be entirely expropriated of their claims, its capital definitely was not so deeply negative, even it had been calculated according to the most unfavourable scenario of stress tests. The amount of NLB, d.d. capital calculated in stress tests was not publicly announced, but a statement that, even if considering the most negative scenario with capital increase in the amount of 1.9 billion euros, a 15% capital adequacy of this bank will be achieved, which means that with such capital increase, even with such scenario, NLB, d.d. capital would be approximately 1.7 billion euros (15 per cent of bank resources in the total amount of 11 or 12 billion euros), which means that without this capital increase, this capital would be negative in the amount of approximately 200 million euros. If this negative capital was the reason for NLB, d.d. bankruptcy procedures, the transformation of state deposit, as defined in Article 498 of ZGD-1, would place capital back on the positive level, in the amount of more than a billion euros, which definitely would be enough to pay off all creditors, even those most subordinated ones. 

5.) The Government claims that »all procedures regarding aid to banks will run into difficulties, if they are carried out contrary to the rules of the European Union regarding State aid«. The Government has in this claim again »overlooked« the fact that the guidelines of the European Commission are not binding; only a directive which is a technical legal document with unambiguous and precisely defined terminology, and which is formed on the basis of non-technical guidelines, represents binding instructions that provisions of this directive need to be enforced in national legislation of the EU member states. In case of guidelines regarding State aid to banks, the directive is to be formed in the following year, and member states are to put it into force on 1st January 2018, and until then this directive is not to be binding.  

In addition to this the guidelines in the report of the European Commission regarding the use of rules about State aid to banks that the Government refers to, in Article 35, which defines bank measures for collecting capital, talk about »voluntary transformation of subordinated instruments into capital on the basis of an incentive«, and ZBan-1L defines that this transformation, without the owners' will or negotiations with them, be ordered by the Bank of Slovenia, and it can also substitute it by a compulsory write-off – also in its entirety, which was in NLB, d.d. public statement cited in item 1, already officially announced.

6.) The Government claims that »banks have to be aware of the fact that breaking the rules of the European Union means that the European Union will demand that countries return financial means which were unlawfully received, which means that rehabilitation of bank system will not be successful«.   This claim repeats the thesis that the guidelines are law, which is not true; even a directive is not a law, but only an injunction which indicates that provisions of a directive need to be enforced by a law, and by enforcing a law in the national legislation the use of these provisions becomes binding, and it is against the law if we do not use them.     

7.) The Government claims that »the financial resources which the country has at disposal at the moment may be insufficient, and it will not be possible to ensure capital adequacy of banks«. State Secretary at the Ministry of Finance officially declared on 29 November that:«4.7 billion euros will be the maximum amount invested into banks«. When the results of stress tests were announced they said that the State will contribute 3.01 billion euros for bank recovery of NLB, NKBM and A-bank, for capital increase of Probanka and Factor Bank 441 million euros, and for capital increase of bad bank (DUTB) additional 200 million euros, therefore 3.65 billion euros altogether. An entire subordinated debt of the Slovene banking system totals 800 million euros – subordinated debt of the previously mentioned banks is lower – therefore it is clear that because this debt will not be written off, the required financial means from the current 3.65 billion euros cannot exceed 4.7 billion euros.

8.) The Government claims that »emergency measures needed for the recovery of bank system will not be implemented«. This also is not true, because the government can carry out all other measures which can be implemented by using all provisions of the Measures for Strengthening Bank Stability Act (ZUKSB) and all ZBan-1 provisions which have been in use before ZBan-1L was introduced.   

Belarussian-Slovene Business Conference took place yesterday in the premises of the Belarussian Chamber of Commerce in Minsk. The Conference was attended by 21 Slovene and 39 Belarussian companies and institutions, among others Albin Promotion, ACS – Automotive Cluster of Slovenia, Finance Newspaper, Duol, Gonzaga Pro, Slovenian Chamber of Commerce, Helios Group, Institute of Tourism and Sports Radenci, Iskratel, Klima Petek, Kovinatrade, POP TV, Predilnica Litija (a spinning mill), Riko and Stubelj. The Conference was also attended by VZMD President Kristjan Verbič, M.Sc., who arrived at Minsk together with the representatives of the Slovene business diplomacy directly from Moscow, and he presented at the Slovene-Russian Investment Conference the possibilities and opportunities in the framework of VZMD international business-investment programmes: Invest to Slovenia (investo.si) and International Investors` Network (invest-to.net), along with PREMIERING OF THE VIDEO prepared by investo.tv for these occasions (click on the image on the left to play the video). 

In the framework of yesterday's Conference the assembled audience was initially addressed by: Belarussian Deputy Foreign Minister Elena Kupchina, General Director of the Directorate for Economic Diplomacy of the Republic of Slovenia Mr Stanislav Raščan, PhD, and Deputy Chairman of the Belarussian Chamber of Commerce Mr Vladimir Ulakhovich. A representative of the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce (GZS) Aleš Cantarutti and a representative of Belarussian National Agency for Investments and Privatisation Tatiana Bychkouskaya,  presented to the assembled audience Slovene and Belarussian business environment, whereas a representative of the State Tourism Organisation»Centrekurort« Ksenia Pyzh presented their project  2014 Ice Hockey World Championship in Belarus.

The presentations were followed by B2B business meetings where a great interest was expressed in cooperation and the possibilities provided by the two VZMD business-investment programmes. Therefore Mr Verbič, MA, had most meetings of all the 15 Slovene representatives – 8 meetings had been planned initially, however, due to the additional interest Mr Verbič held 11 meetings with the Belarussian participants at the Conference. The conversations were followed by meetings with the representatives of Belarussian institutions in the framework of mixed committee, and a dinner afterwards.

The Conference in Minsk was the last – the 18th carried out abroad this year (VIDEO CLIP) - presentation of VZMD international business-investment programmes before the start of a new season next year. After this year's successful presentations in Astana, Almaty, Baku, Brussels, Bucharest, Cape Town, Vienna, Kiev, Ljubljana, Madrid, Minsk, Moscow, New Delhi, Tokyo, Toronto and Zagreb, VZMD kindly invites those wishing to secure their business interest by taking part in our activitiesto contact the VZMD investo.si programme coordinator by phone 031 770 771, or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. All those interested in our activities can also contact our coordinator to inform him about the

preferred date for a meeting with us and to get more information about our programmes, the anticipated activities and possible opportunities in 2014.   

Slovenian Prime Minister Mrs Alenka Bratušek – after three successive visits at the investment conferences in Düsseldorf, Paris in Milan – yesterday opened Slovene-Russian Investment Conference in the eminent Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Moscow. The conference took place along her meeting with the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mr Dimitrij Medvedjev. VZMD President Mr Kristjan Verbič, M.Sc., also actively participated at the conference, and within the conference programme Mr Verbič presented to the assembled audience endeavours and opportunities within the framework of VZMD business-investment programmes: Invest to Slovenia (investo.si) and International Investors` Network (invest-to.net), and he concluded his presentation by PREMIERING THE VIDEO prepared for this occasion by investo.tv.

Apart from the Prime Minister Mrs Bratušek, the assembled audience at the Investment Conference was also addressed by the Minister of Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation Mr Nikolaj Nikiforov and Deputy Chairman of the Sberbank Board Mr Sergej Gorkov, and the latter has also participated at the round table discussion entitled "Investment Opportunities in the Republic of Slovenia" along with some other guest speakers: Deputy Chairman of the Russian metallurgical giant Koks Mr Sergey Frolov, the Slovene Ambassador to the Russian Federation, his excellency Mr Primož Šeligo, NLB representative in Moscow Mr Metod Dragonja and Director of RIKO company Mr Janez Škrabec. Director of SPIRIT Slovenia Mr Boštjan Skalar, SOD (Central Ownership Entity of Slovenia) board member Mr Matej Runjak, NLB representative in Moscow Mr Metod Dragonja and VZMD President presented to the participants of the conference business climate in Slovenia and the institutional support for foreign investors, and some Slovene companies and investment projects which are in the process of privatisation or selling of shares of the Republic of Slovenia, planned by the Slovenian Government.

While visiting Moscow VZMD President has had numerous bilateral discussions and meetings with some highly esteemed businessmen and investors (some of them have been invited to the conference due to their extremely successful cooperation with the colleagues from the Russian Association of Investors), and yesterday in the evening VZMD President attended the reception at the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Moscow, at the conclusion of the visits by the Prime Minister Mrs Bratušek and Defence Minister Mr Roman Jakič to Russia.

This has been Mr Verbič's third visit to Moscow this year – after participating inOctober's business delegation along the meeting of the Slovenian Foreign Minister with his Russian counterpart, and after a short visit in June after visiting Kazakhstan as a member of a business delegation. VZMD President is departing today for the Belorussian capital Minsk where he is going to be involved in the Slovene business delegation, and he is going to participate at the business conference there with B2B meetings. Suitable provisions have also been made this time to ensure successful presentations of companies, institutions and investment projects included in the two VZMD international business-investment programmes.

Quite a few successful presentations have been carried out this year in Astana, Almaty, Baku, Brussels, Bucharest, Cape Town, Vienna, Kiev, Ljubljana, Madrid, Moscow, New Delhi, Tokyo, Toronto and Zagreb, and at least two more visits have been planned for this year in Minsk and Moscow, therefore VZMD is pleased to invite all who would like to take part in the activities to contact VZMD investo.si programme coordinator by phone 031 770 771, or e-mail tratar@investo.si.

Slovene-Russian Investment Conference will take place in Moscow next week along the visit of the Slovene Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek. Pan-Slovenian Shareholders' Association has - in cooperation with the Slovenian Foreign Ministry, Public Agency  SPIRIT Slovenia and the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce (GZS) - invited also some companies and investment projects, included in their two business-investment programmes Invest to Slovenia (investo.si) and International Investors` Network (invest-to.net), to participate in the project, and they have been included in a special promotional catalogue which has been prepared for the investment conferences in Düsseldorf, Milan, Moscow and Paris.

In the framework of the investment conference the assembled audience will be addressed by the Prime Minister Ms Bratušek, the Minister of Communications and Mass Media of Russia Mr Nikolaj Nikiforov and Deputy Chairman of the Sberbank Board Mr Sergej Gorkov. They both will - along with the Slovenian Minister of Finances Mr Uroš Čufer, PhD, the Deputy Chairman of the Russian metallurgical giant Koks, and the Slovene Ambassador in the Russian Federation Mr Primož Šeligo – participate at the round table discussion entitled »Investment Opportunities in the Republic of Slovenia«. Mr. Boštjan Skalar, a member of the board of the Slovenska odškodninska družba (SOD), Matej Runjak, NLB bank representative in Moscow, Metod Dragonja and VZMD President Mr Kristjan Verbič will present to the participants of the Conference business climate in Slovenia and the institutional support for foreign investors. Slovenian companies and investment projects will be presented at the Investment Conference as well.

VZMD President Mr. Kristjan Verbič yesterday returned from Bucharest, where he attended the Economic and Trade Forum: China – Central and Eastern European Countries, which took place along the meeting of the Prime Ministers from 16 Central and Eastern European countries with the Prime Minister of the People's Republic of China Li Keqiangom. 

The forum was opened on Tuesday by the opening addresses of the Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta and the Prime Minister of the People's Republic of China Li Keqiang. Slovenian Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek, MA, was also attending the important meeting of Prime Ministers from 17 countries, and VZMD President has also met Ms Bratušek. Mr Verbič, MA, has also exchanged a few words with the Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dačić, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta, Bulgarian Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski, and the two Romanian ministers: the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Daniel Constantin and the Minister of Communications and Information Science Dan Nica.

Besides VZMD President Mr Verbič three other representatives of the Slovenian companies attended the Forum: Duško Kos, Director of Studio Moderna company d.o.o., Tomi Ilijaš, Director of Arctur company d.o.o., and Luka Mulej, a representative of Xlab company d.o.o. All three representatives were received by the Slovenian Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek just before her meeting with the Chinese Prime Minister. 

Otherwise more than 1000 representatives of companies and institutions from 17 countries were attending the Forum, and 213 of them came from China. In the framework of the efforts of the Pan-Slovenian Shareholders' Association's business-investment programmes (VZMD), Invest to Slovenia (investo.si) and International Investors' Network (invest-to.net), Mr Verbič has established numerous contacts, and he has also held some discussions with the highly esteemed participants. (In the photo Mr Verbič with the Polish Deputy Minister of Economy Ms Ilona Antoniszyn-Klik and the Slovenian Minister of Infrastructure and Spatial Planning Mr Samo Omerzel.)

After the gala opening of the Forum on Tuesday and a panel the participants were discussing the themes of infrastructure, agriculture, energy, tourism and information technology and communications.

The official part of the visit was concluded on Wednesday when VZMD president attended the awards ceremony "Financial Leaders' Hall of Fame 2013", which has been this year organised for the 13^th time in row by the Romanian business magazine Business Arena.

Suitable provisions have also been made this time to ensure successful presentations of the companies, institutions and investment projects included in the two VZMD international business-investment programmes.

Quite a few successful presentations have been carried out this year in Astana, Almaty, Baku, Brussels, Bucharest, Cape Town, Vienna, Kiev, Ljubljana, Madrid, Moscow, New Delhi, Tokyo, Toronto and Zagreb, and at least two more visits have been planned for this year which are supposed to take place in Minsk and Moscow, therefore  VZMD is pleased to invite all who would like to take part in the activities to contact VZMD investo.si programme coordinator by phone 031 770 771, or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

After the active participation at the business conference in the framework of theSlovene business delegation, and after participation at numerous events, meetings and Gourmet Food & Wine Expo, VZMD President Kristjan Verbič, M.Sc., concluded his visit to Canadian Toronto and continued business and private networking in the nearby Buffalo (the USA), from where he yesterday departed for Bucharest, where he is to attend the Economic Forum, alongside the meeting of Middle & Eastern European Prime Ministers and the Chinese Prime Minister.President Verbič was travelling to Bucharest via Istanbul, where he was supposed to attend gala opening of the Turkish-Slovenian Business Club, but the opening has unfortunately been postponed.  

Before his departure from Canada VZMD President attended the central event ofBled Mutual Benefit Society, the association of the Slovenians living in Canada with 80 years of tradition, where he addressed more than 200 assembled members of the Slovenian community in Toronto, and exchanged his views with many partners in dialogue. At the initiative of the President of the All-Slovenian Cultural Committee in Toronto Mr. Marjan Kolarič, VZMD President also attended a traditional Victoria Fund charity auction, which is a part of the previously mentioned Cultural Committee (in the photos: the assembled participants in the Great Hall of the Slovene Cultural Centre, next to Mr. Verbič there is Mr. Marjan Kolarič and his predecessor of many years Mr. Stane Kranjc; PHOTO BY: Ciril Soršak).

During his visit to Canada Mr Verbič met numerous representatives and respected members of the Slovenian community, among others Honorary Consul General of the Republic of Slovenia in Canada Mr John Dom, Charge d'affaires ad interim at the Slovenian Embassy in Ottawa Ms Irena Grill, Executive Director of KREK Credit Union Ltd. Mr Joseph Cestnik, Top Grade Molds, Ltd. Executive Director Mr Joe Slobodnik, SKAL International ex-President Mr Frank Vismeg, the representative of Bank of Montreal Ms Sylvia Turk, Kearns Waste Sciences, Ltd. Representative Mr John Ivan Plut, Editor of the Canadian magazine »Glasilo« Ms Milena Soršak, J.M. Die Limited CEO Mr Joe Skof, the owner of a famous boat, anchored in Toronto, and former Jadran restaurant owner Mr John Letnik – Captain John (on the left of the photo), etc.

In the framework of endeavours of the international VZMD business-investment programmes Invest to Slovenia (investo.si) and International Investors` Network (invest-to.net) VZMD President departed from Toronto to the USA, to the nearby Buffalo, where he visited, among other things, the City Hall and the office of the Mayor Byron W. Brown, and this visit took place exactly on the 50th anniversary of the President John F. Kennedy's assassination, which they mark in Buffalo with special attention, since Kennedy visited this city exactly 51 years ago.

Mr Verbič, M.Sc., had numerous meetings in Buffalo and he also strengthened the contacts he established in July 1993 as the Head of the 1st Slovenian delegation at the Universiade. At the same time he also established many new contacts withimportant people, especially those who are important for the Slovenian wine growers and wine-cellars. Thus he has met, among others, a renowned and awarded wine connoisseur Paula Paradise (on the left of the photo) who was for many years working as a Director of Wine Education for Prime Wine Corp, one of the leading companies in the area of wine trade in the USA; Ms Paradise is planning to open her own wine house and a wine shop in spring 2014. Ms Paradise and Mr Verbič tried a sample of Pullus wine (it has been awarded many times, among others it has been awarded: Gold Decanter Award, London; Gold Wine Awards in China and Hong Kong, Mundus Vini Gold Medal, Germany), which is the Sort of 10 Barrels of Ptuj Wine Cellar, and Ms Paradise, one of the most eminent wine connoisseurs, has praised the wine's exceptional quality, and she also expressed an interest in including Slovenian wines in the wine offer of her own Wine House and Wine Shop.

Immediately after returning to Europe VZMD President departed for Bucharest – via Istanbul where he was supposed to attend the postponed opening of the Turkish-Slovenian Business Club yesterday – and today he is to attend the Economic Forum at the Romanian Parliament, alongside the meeting of the Middle & Eastern European Prime Ministers with the Chinese Prime Minister, and on this occasion Mr. Verbič is also going to meet Slovenian Prime Minister Ms Alenka Bratušek, MA. This is his second visit to Bucharest this year, after the World Bank's International Conference where VZMD President participated as the first speaker at the regular session of the meeting.  

Quite a few successful presentations have been carried out this year in Astana, Almaty, Baku, Brussels, Bucharest, Cape Town, Vienna, Kiev, Ljubljana, Madrid, Moscow, New Delhi, Tokyo, Toronto and Zagreb, andat least a few more visitshave been planned for this year which are supposed to take place in Minsk and Moscow, therefore  VZMD is pleased to invite all who would like to take part in the activities to contact VZMD investo.si programme coordinator by phone 031 770 771, programme coordinator by phone 031 770 771, or e-mail tratar@investo.si.