Chapter 5: Slovenia

(continued)

5.6 Information and Training Needs

When asked to indicate the type of information necessary to their business development, Slovenian environmental professionals expressed a need for updated information on domestic environmental regulations (listed by 77 percent of respondents); information on project opportunities, especially on tenders (listed by 62 percent); updates on the status of environment and environmental problems (listed by 60 percent); and information regarding sources of project financing (listed by 57 percent). The results of the rankings are shown in Table 5.20.

TABLE 5.20: IMPORTANCE OF SELECTED ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION
Environmental Information	Rating

Domestic environmental regulations	3.7 (77)
Domestic tenders for projects	3.4 (62)
Domestic environmental problems	3.4 (60)
Sources of project financing	3.4 (57)
EU environmental regulations	3.3 (49)
New environmental technologies	3.3 (46)
Announcements of domestic conferences or trade fairs	3.1 (41)
Information on finding domestic partners	3.1 (36)
Eco-efficient and cleaner production practices	2.9 (35)
International tenders for projects	2.8 (35)
Environmental quality standards for industries (e.g. ISO 14000, EMAS)	2.8 (32)
Announcements of international conferences or trade fairs	2.8 (31)
Certification requirements for environmental professionals	2.8 (29)
Information on finding international partners	2.8 (22)
Contact information to government agencies	2.6 (22)
International environmental problems	2.7 (21)
Note: The following scale was used for the rating: 4 Ð very important, 3 Ð important, 2 Ð somewhat important, 1 Ð not important. Numbers in brackets indicate the percentage of respondents who rated the information as very important.

Surprisingly, information on eco-efficient and cleaner production practices and environmental management systems was not seen as urgent. This may be explained by a lack of awareness and by the fact that the implementation of these tools and techniques is still in the early stages. However, it was noted in the survey that there are ongoing initiatives to establish a cleaner production center in Slovenia as well as to promote environmental management systems more widely throughout the country.

Companies were also asked to rank the best delivery option for receiving important information. The results are presented in Table 5.21. While there was no single overwhelmingly popular means of delivering information, conferences were the most preferred delivery option, followed by the Internet. Partnering workshops designed to bring together Western partners, government officials and NGOs and an environmental business directory were also seen as useful information delivery options. On average, between a third and half of the surveyed businesses were willing to pay for such products.

TABLE 5.21: USEFULNESS OF SELECTED INFORMATION DELIVERY OPTIONS
Delivery option	Rating	% of Respondents Willing to Pay

Conferences arranged to address specific environmental problems	3.1 (36)	33
Computer database of information resources available on Internet	2.8 (33)	40
Partnering workshops designed to introduce participants to Western partners, government environmental officials and NGO	2.8 (23)	41
Environmental Business Directory (CD diskette)	2.8 (22)	40
Environmental Business Directory (book)	2.8 (16)	36
Regular newsletter	2.8 (16)	48
Information research service providing specific information	2.7 (20)	40
Local business coordinator to arrange meetings, contacts and workshops	2.5 (14)	12
Broadcast fax service	2.3 (10)	15
Note: The following scale was used for the rating: 4 - very useful; 3 - useful; 2 - somewhat useful; 1 - not useful. Numbers in brackets indicate the percentage of respondents which find delivery option very useful.

With regard to topics for advanced professional training, the top three subjects of interest to survey respondents were environmental impact assessment, environmental regulation and policy and financing environmental investments. Interest in various training topics is presented in Table 5.22.

TABLE 5.22: INTEREST IN PROFESSIONAL TRAINING
Type of Training	Rating

Environmental impact assessment	3.2 (41)
Environmental regulation and policy	3.2 (35)
Financing environmental investments	3.0 (36)
Environmental economics	3.0 (31)
Environmental management	2.9 (29)
Environmental auditing	2.8 (27)
Strategic planning	2.8 (24)
Project management	2.7 (24)
Environmental risk assessment	2.7 (21)
Hazardous waste site ranking	2.6 (17)
Environmental systems and their sustainability	2.6 (16)
Integrated solid waste management	2.5 (17)
GIS (Geographic Information Systems)	2.5 (13)
Note: The following scale was used in the rating: 4 - very interested; 3 - interested; 2 - somewhat interested; 1 - not interested. Numbers in brackets indicate the percentage of respondents who are very interested in a particular training.

REC * PUBLICATIONS * EMERGING ENVIRONMENTAL MARKET 2 * SLOVENIA