News roundup - Friday, 4 October, until 3pm

Slovenia's exports up 19% in August, imports flat

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's merchandise exports increased by 19% year-on-year to EUR 4.29 billion in August, the Statistics Office said. Like in July the rise was fuelled by trade with third countries involving processing operations in the pharmaceutical industry. Imports on the other hand grew by just 0.2% to EUR 4.78 billion.

Slovenia to become full member of CERN in second half of 2025

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia is expected to become a full member of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in the second half of 2025, Jure Gašparič, state secretary at the Higher Education, Science and Innovation Ministry, announced. The CERN council gave a positive assessment of Slovenia's preparedness for full membership based on the report of a group of experts that visited Slovenia at the start of the year.

Telco Telekom Slovenije aims at higher revenue in 2025

LJUBLJANA - Telekom Slovenije, the majority state-owned telecoms incumbent, aims to improve business results in 2025, upgrade and modernise its network and increase market shares, shows the business plan approved by the group's supervisory board on Thursday. Operating revenue in 2025 is expected to reach almost EUR 730 million and net profit EUR 53.6 million.

Court: Performance bonus cannot be lowered due to sickness

LJUBLJANA - The Supreme Court has ruled that it is not justifiable to pay an employee who was absent from work due to sickness a lower bonus than they would receive if at work all the time. The court deliberated on a case where a woman claimed from her former employer the difference in her performance bonus (Christmas bonus) for 2020 and 2021. She said the employer had excluded the periods when she was absent due to sickness from her performance bonus payments in line with the company's collective bargaining agreement.

Slovenian minority holds business conference in Zagreb

ZAGREB, Croatia - The Slovenian minority's economic coordinating committee held its first ever business conference, organised by the SLO CRO business club and the Economy Ministry and aimed at strengthening cooperation between Slovenian companies and companies owned by members of the Slovenian minority there. The economies of Slovenia and Croatia are complementary so the next step will be to look for synergies and to present jointly in third markets, said head of the SLO CRO Business Club Saša Muminović.

Slovenia attends CRI annual meeting discussing cyber security

LJUBLJANA - Government Information Security Office director Uroš Svete took part in the annual gathering of the International Counter-Ransomware Initiative (CRI) in Washington, DC, this week. The initiative discussed for the first time the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the fight against ransomware attacks, the office said. "The visit to the US strengthens cyber cooperation between Slovenia and the US and opens up new opportunities for cooperation in an international environment that is faced with growing cyber threats," the office said.

Thousands of waste cans collected for bivouac shelters

LJUBLJANA - Some 117,000 cans were collected in less than four months as part of a project to collect waste cans in Slovenian mountains. The cans, amounting to 2 tons of aluminium, will be used to construct two bivouac shelters in the coming months. Dedicated bins for waste cans were set up at 14 mountain descent sites around the country.