Ljubljana and Maribor "unattractive" to foreign investors?

The Austrian weekly "Format" recently published a report on the relative attractiveness of Central European cities for investors. 28 cities were ranked from best to worst and the results proved rather embarrassing for Slovenia. Its two main cities, Ljubljana and Maribor, finished close to the bottom of the list, in the "unattractive" category.

The report published in Format was prepared by the Capgemini consulting firm, and was based on five criteria: the quality and cost of labour, the quality of infrastructure, access to international suppliers, and the living standards of foreigners. Polish cities dominated the list: Of the top six cities considered to be "very attractive" for business: exactly four were Polish. The top spot, however, went to the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

Slovenia's cities, by contrast, ranked poorly. The capital, Ljubljana, took 20th place, while Slovenia's second city of Maribor finished in 23rd place. Both of them were labelled "unattractive." The worst place to do business, according to the survey, was Belgrade.

Slovenian officials were slow to react. The mayor of Ljubljana, Danica Simsic, initially refused to comment on the study, saying that she wasn't familiar with the methods used. Officials we contacted at the chambers of commerce in Maribor and Ljubljana were also reluctant, or unable, to comment.

Maribor's mayor, Boris Sovic, told the Slovenian newspaper "Finance" that he believed Maribor did well in the categories of labour and access to suppliers. Srecko Pirtovsek, chief editor of the Maribor-based financial magazine Kapital had this to say about the results:

"I must say that I'm not familiar with all the criteria used by Format, but it is my opinion that Maribor missed the opportunity, both while entering the EU as well as before, to become a center of the Styria region. There are many reasons for this, including the crisis from some years ago as well as slow reactions from city officials. So we missed the chance to make Maribor a logistics center. We also failed to attract big investors, like BMW for example, to Maribor, and they decided to invest in other countries with better conditions."

Slovenia's incoming government, led by the center-right party SDS, has already said that making Slovenia more attractive for business is a priority. The new finance minister, Andrej Bajuk, has already promised to cancel restrictions on foreign investment.