Slovenia seeks Indian JVs, investments in tourism, automotive

Slovenia on Saturday sought Indian investment and joint ventures, particularly in the areas of tourism, hospitality, automotive and medicaments.

Participating in an interactive session organised by the Merchants' Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the Eastern European country's Ambassador in India Jozef Drofenik said that a skilled and qualified labour force, low labour cost, excellent infrastructure and geographical location, efficiency in production and access to markets in Southeast Europe, made his country an ideal business destination.

"The Republic of Slovenia is known for niche technologies.

"The Indian business community can set up joint ventures and invest in Slovenia, particularly in the areas of tourism, hospitality, automotive and medicaments," he said.

Drofenik said as there were not enough hotels and Indian restaurants in the country, there existed a huge potential for investment in the sector.

He said four Indian companies have started business in Slovenia - three of them in the auto industry and the other in food processing.

He mentioned that Slovenia had a GDP of euro 43 billion (estimated) in 2017 with euro 20,700 per capita income. The current GDP growth rate was around 4.7 to 4.9 percent. The top export product of Slovenia are cars, packed medicaments, refined petroleum and vehicle parts.

Referring to the tax structure, he pointed out that the Corporate Income tax rate was 19 percent (effective rate 12 percent) with tax relief up to 100 percent in R&D, 40 percent of the amount invested in equipments and long term assets. As for the VAT structure, the standard rate was 22 percent and the reduced rate 9 percent.

--IANS

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