By: C.R.,STA
At today’s press conference in Brdo pri Kranju, Prime Minister Janez Janša and Deputy Prime Ministers Zdravko Počivalšek and Matej Tonin presented implemented projects in Slovenian municipalities during the 2020-2022 term of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia. At the press conference, they also talked about projects that have been approved by the government and will be implemented in the future, as well as projects that are already underway.
“Our shortened term is coming to an end. Our government took responsibility for the executive power in the country the day after the epidemic was declared, and even though the epidemic was our main opponent at the time, Slovenia’s development did not stop,” said the Prime Minister. As the election campaign for the National Assembly is about to begin, the government has reviewed the projects that have been carried out during this time, the projects that are ongoing and agreed, that is, they are included in national programmes and plans, and funding is provided. “Slovenia consists of 212 municipalities and all these projects are distributed throughout Slovenia. The government is also visiting all Slovenian regions, only the southern half of the central Slovenian region will be visited in early April, and projects of which lists of values, timelines are now available on the central government website are some of the largest in terms of investment momentum from the beginning of its establishment,” said the Prime Minister. He also added that there are hundreds of projects on the virtual map, but if we add some of them that we are still entering and are largely a combination of investing funds from the budget, European funds, and municipal budgets, we can talk about thousands of development projects, which are taking place in Slovenia and will take place in the future.
“Slovenia is building and will build kindergartens, schools, sports halls, homes for the elderly, hospitals, nursing hospitals, health centres, roads, bypasses, bicycle paths, water supply and sewerage networks, energy facilities, we will rehabilitate many public facilities, flood protection facilities are being built, we are starting everything necessary for the construction of the second block of the Krško NPP. In the last year, as additional funds, in addition to what agriculture, forestry and rural areas receive from European funds and the first and second pillars of the common European agricultural policy, we have provided 300 million euros of additional incentives for agriculture and rural areas for the next five years” added the Prime Minister. “Before the war in Ukraine started, which poses a threat, in the sense that there will be certain disruptions in the market of food supply, we have in some way provided funds based on which Slovenia will become largely food self-sufficient in the coming years, and it will become energy-independent after we build the facilities that are planned,” said the Prime Minister.
In the case of the municipality of Grosuplje, which was chosen by journalists, the Prime Minister presented the project of the government map in more detail. “The beginning shows projects financed from the integrated budget, the second part is projects from European funds, some also include projects that take place in several municipalities, such as the modernisation of railways or the construction and renovation of regional road links, and there are numbers attributed, thus figures for whole projects. The total value of what is already on the map, but not all of it has been entered yet, because some projects are still being included in national development programmes, or tenders have been published in the primary health care network, so that everything will be entered additionally. What has been entered now is a total of almost 8 billion euros, of which almost a billion and a half are European funds, so it is by far the largest investment drive that Slovenia has ever been able to launch and in a few years it will be the next step in the development of Slovenia, a real basis for prosperity, on the basis of which there will be higher salaries, higher pensions, better jobs, more investments, a better business environment,” said the Prime Minister.
“The priorities that we will discuss at the top of the economy are also getting a real basis in the implementation of these projects, some things need to be done because we have not done them so far,” said the Prime Minister, adding that all data is publicly available. “It is possible to check for each municipality what is happening, but the map, as said, is not final and this number will certainly increase by a hundred or more millions,” said Prime Minister Janez Janša.
“Financial resources for the projects listed are real, so they are not imaginary projects, but resources are provided either in the budget or in the funds, because we negotiated them,” he added. He also reminded that yesterday the Ministry of Finance received a letter of congratulations from the Vice-President of the European Commission, who oversees the macroeconomic stability of the entire Union. “The Vice-President of the Commission congratulated the Slovenian Minister for the fact that Slovenia is among those countries that reduced the debt ratio the most last year and that we had record macroeconomic positive results,” said the Prime Minister. He added that the last of the four credit rating agencies also rated Slovenia stable with an A rating and a descriptive rating regarding the future. “So, in all four credit rating agencies in the world, Slovenia has an A rating, with a stable description, so everything on the map is not castles in the clouds, but something that we will realistically do,” said the Prime Minister.
As the last visit of the government in the Osrednjeslovenska region made some remarks about how neglected Ljubljana is, the Prime Minister presented that there has never been as much investment in Ljubljana as now, “by far the most of all municipalities, because Ljubljana is also the largest, the list is extremely long.” “When we negotiated significant European funds, we discussed with all mayors how to allocate these negotiated billions, the Ljubljana deputy mayor praised the cooperation. In many other municipalities you will also find statements of mayors who spoke about these projects on the map, and you can also ask each one if so much has been invested all over Slovenia in the history of Slovenia,” the Prime Minister told reporters.
The Prime Minister also answered journalists’ questions. Initially, the focus was on how to address the issue of project bidding, given that raw materials are becoming more expensive and that price pressures are enormous. “This problem really exists, in Slovenia there were problems with annexes even when there was no price pressure, we are aware that in some places there may be a gap between the estimated value of the investment and what will actually be the cost, partial reserves are already in the projects themselves, and we will look for partial reserves on a case-by-case basis, it is impossible to predict this in advance,” said the Prime Minister and continued: “We are working on this, both on domestic and foreign field, so that this situation of uncertainty would take as little time as possible to stabilise things. In addition to Ukraine, one of the important topics at the EU summit will be the stabilisation of energy prices. Plans have been prepared by the European Commission, which will have a significant impact on lowering prices in the coming months. As price pressure is partly due to broken logistics links and speculation, we expect that some of these risks will eventually disappear, that other routes will be established and that this will reduce pressure on prices. Of course, it is very important that peace is established in our Eastern neighbourhood, because now this is by far the biggest risk factor, which includes price pressure,” said the Prime Minister.
Asked how important the situation in Ukraine is in the campaign and whether the main topics in the campaign will be the projects presented, the Prime Minister said that “the war in the immediate neighbourhood affects everyone.” “Our party had a pre-election campaign, based on the results, views, and plans and development of Slovenia in the next seven years until 2030. This is partly less relevant because we must deal with the direct impact of Russia’s aggression on Ukraine and there is little time for a classic campaign even in the coming weeks,” the Prime Minister replied. “As for the map of ongoing projects that have been implemented and have a realistic financial basis for the future, this is not pre-election material, but a fact. This is something that has been done in the two years of the mandate and at the end of this period we are making a balance so that everyone can form their own opinion, compare what has been done in the last two years and review what has happened before,” added the Prime Minister.
Asked in connection with the diplomatic mission in Kiev what it should look like, what the procedure is, who will be the head of the mission, the Prime Minister expressed joy that “as soon as the public call was made, we received applications from volunteers for the mission which will go back to Ukraine. These are colleagues from various departments who already have experience, because in the past they have worked within various international organisations. We also have candidates for the EU mission if the EU finally decides to take this step. As far as the Slovenian mission is concerned, it will have full powers for the time being, at the level of charge d’affaires,” the Prime Minister added.
Source: Gov.si