Details of environmental spending in 1995 were not available. In 1994, the vast majority of environmental spending was allocated to air pollution-control activities (71 percent), followed by waste management-related activities (18 percent) and water and wastewater-related projects (9 percent). The remaining funds were spent on other projects, including the national monitoring system.
The environmental business sector in Slovenia is perhaps the largest of the surveyed countries. It is estimated that nearly 250 companies provide environmental products or services (121 of them were included in this survey. The market is also young - 52 percent of the companies were established after 1990. More than half of the companies were privately owned, although a significant share (25 percent) were state-owned. The remaining companies were in the process of privatization or operated under a combination of state and private ownership.
With 13 percent of environmental companies involved in joint-ventures with foreign firms, Slovenia has the second largest occurrence of foreign partnerships of all the surveyed countries. Partners for Slovenian joint-ventures come mainly from Austria, Germany and Croatia.
The total revenues from environmental activities reported by the 95 companies that provided financial data exceeded USD 87 million in 1995. Technical services generated the highest share of revenues (40 percent), followed by the sale of environmental technologies (26 percent) and testing and monitoring activities (15 percent). Others sources of income were research, training and education.
When the total revenues were broken down by media, the top income areas were water and wastewater activities and waste-related activities, each of which generated 30 percent of revenues. Air pollution control generated 9 percent of revenues, energy-related activities generated 7 percent. The remaining 24 percent came from industrial safety and noise reduction, environmental impact assessment and soil and land activities.
As in the other surveyed countries, no effective formal channels exist to provide information on project opportunities. Personal and professional contacts, the Ministry of Environment, fairs and trade shows, the daily press, direct mail and participation in conferences are among the primary sources of information about business opportunities. Professional associations, such as the chamber of commerce, and the Academy of Sciences are not seen as major information sources or as effective lobbying groups for the environmental business sector.
Slovenia's environmental professionals showed high interest in information about domestic environmental regulations, domestic tenders for projects, domestic environmental problems, sources of project financing, EU environmental regulations, and new environmental technologies.
Only one third of the survey respondents showed high interest in conferences arranged to address specific environmental problems; a computer database of information resources available on the Internet; and a partnering workshop designed to introduce Slovenian professionals to Western partners, government environmental officials and NGOs. Approximately 40 percent of the respondents would be willing to pay for such information products.
Professional environmental training was requested particularly on environmental impact assessment, environmental regulation and policy, financing environmental investments, environmental economics and environmental management.
The government was considered by 65 percent of the survey respondents to be an important source of support and assistance for environmental activities. Other important sources of assistance mentioned by more than 40 percent of the respondents were scientific and academic institutions, professional training institutions, financial institutions, business or industrial associations and international organizations.
Access to credit and financing was seen as the biggest barrier to the development of Slovenia's environmental business sector and was mentioned by 64 percent of respondents. The next biggest barrier, mentioned by almost half the survey respondents, was environmental regulations.