Chapter 5: Slovenia

(continued)

5.7 Assistance and Barriers to Development

When asked to indicate the importance of various institutions to their business development, 65 percent of environmental professionals said the government, particularly the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning, was an important source of support. As shown in Table 5.23, scientific, professional training, and financial institutions, business associations and international organizations, were each considered important sources of support by about 40 percent of survey respondents.

TABLE 5.23: IMPORTANCE OF SELECTED SOURCES OF ASSISTANCE
Institution or organization	Responses for "Very Important" or "Important"

Government	65%
Scientific or academic institutions	44%
Professional training institutions	43%
Financial institutions	43%
Business or industrial associations	42%
International organizations	41%

As in other surveyed countries, a large percentage of Slovenian environmental professionals (64 percent) viewed limited access to credit and financing as a major barrier to development. Nearly half pointed to weak environmental legislation and enforcement as a factor that holds back their business development, while one out of three survey respondents considered general access to information and legal regulations and registration requirements to be barriers. Market demand and foreign competition were not seen as major barriers. The perceived barriers to business development are listed in Table 5.24.

TABLE 5.24: PERCEIVED BARRIERS TO BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Barriers to Development	Responses for "Major Barrier" or "Barrier"

Access to credit and finance	64%
Environmental regulations	49%
Tax regulation	39%
General access to information	34%
Legal regulations and registration requirements	33%
Market demand for products and services	24%
Foreign competition	15%

REC * PUBLICATIONS * EMERGING ENVIRONMENTAL MARKET 2 * SLOVENIA