Creative Industries Slovenia
Global Development Slovenia at Red Yellow Blue (RYB)
Centre for Creativity
supporting Slovenia’s cultural and creative industries
The Centre for Creativity or CzK (Center za kreativnost) was established in 2017 as an interdisciplinary platform to support Slovenia’s cultural and creative sector (CCS). It operates under the auspices of the Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO) in Ljubljana. In 2018, a project office of CzK was also established in Maribor.
The CzK platform is co-financed by the EU European Regional Development Fund and the Republic of Slovenia in the period 2017–2022.
> culture.si/en/Centre_for_Creativity
Economy
high-income, fast-growing EU-member economy; high human capital; key health infrastructure investments; high government spending; key Croatian investments; high-technology and manufacturing sectors; growing financial hub
With excellent infrastructure, a well-educated work force, and a strategic location between the Balkans and Western Europe, Slovenia has one of the highest per capita GDPs in Central Europe, despite having suffered a protracted recession in the 2008-09 period in the wake of the global financial crisis. Slovenia became the first 2004 EU entrant to adopt the euro (on 1 January 2007) and has experienced a stable political and economic transition.
In March 2004, Slovenia became the first transition country to graduate from borrower status to donor partner at the World Bank. In 2007, Slovenia was invited to begin the process for joining the OECD; it became a member in 2012. From 2014 to 2016, export-led growth, fueled by demand in larger European markets, pushed annual GDP growth above 2.3%. Growth reached 5.0% in 2017 and is projected to near or reach 5% in 2018. What used to be stubbornly high unemployment fell below 5.5% in early 2018, driven by strong exports and increasing consumption that boosted labor demand. Continued fiscal consolidation through increased tax collection and social security contributions will likely result in a balanced government budget in 2019.
Prime Minister Cerar’s government took office in September 2014, pledging to press ahead with commitments to privatize a select group of state-run companies, rationalize public spending, and further stabilize the banking sector. Efforts to privatize Slovenia’s largely state-owned banking sector have largely stalled, however, amid concerns about an ongoing dispute over Yugoslav-era foreign currency deposits.
The major Slovenian port is the Port of Koper (Luka Koper). It is the largest Northern Adriatic port in terms of container transport, with almost 590,000 TEUs annually and lines to all major world ports.