Action Plan Slovenia - Land of Innovative Startups
The Government of the Republic of Slovenia confirmed its awareness that startup companies are of utmost importance for the development of the Slovenian economy and promotion of entrepreneurship. The Action Plan Slovenia - The Land Of Innovative Startup Enterprises was adopted in March 2018.
The beginnings of the Action Plan Slovenia dates back to 2017. The startup community prepared a comprehensive overview of obstacles that hindered the entrepreneurial path of startup companies. It presented the document, Detected Barriers of the Startup Business Community in May 2017, at the PODIM Conference to representatives of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia.
In November of the same year, the Government became acquainted with the document and appointed an interdepartmental working group for the improvement of the national startup ecosystem under the leadership of the Secretary of State Tadej Slapnik, to eliminate these obstacles. This also included successful and reputable startup entrepreneurs, investors, a Startup Slovenia representative and a legal expert.
The working group discussed in detail all 34 obstacles, decided on individual obstacles and outlined activities for their elimination. They found that some of the obstacles had been eliminated in the meantime and that the correct interpretation of the legal provisions was sufficient to eliminate some of them. For other obstacles, however, they prepared an action plan to address them.
The Action Plan Slovenia - Land of Innovative Startups thus includes 17 obstacles and proposals for activities for their elimination.
Progress is continuous and major shifts have already taken place in some areas. Areas, where most effort is being made, are:
- The establishment of the startup register, which was defined by the adoption of the Promotion of Investment Act and is led by the Slovene Enterprise Fund. The startup register is set up and does not only provide an overview of the startup ecosystems in one place but gives confirmation to the companies that they are startups, which can be useful in applying for tenders, both Slovenian and European. This also strengthens Slovenia's role as a land of startups and informs decision-makers to give more attention to them.
- Enabling Slovenian enterprises to conduct business on Google Merchant: Amazon Europe will enable Slovenian companies to conduct business on Amazon and Google Merchant platforms following the activities carried out by the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology.
- Facilitating the employment of foreigners in startup companies, which will be made possible by amending the employment, self-employment and work of foreigners’ act, which will also bring about simplification and an exception to the regular process of employment of foreigners in startup companies. At the same time, the eBDP project is under way that will also enable the digitization of recruitment processes.
- Allowing the establishment/recapitalization of a company in Slovenia from abroad, which will eliminate the requirement that investors must be physically present in Slovenia in order to establish or recapitalize a company.
- Building an optional rewarding system, which is an established mechanism in the startup world. The activity to achieve this measure is currently focused on providing the expert background to decide on optimal solutions.
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