On Tuesday, the government visited the Savinjska statistical region. The members of the government first met for a working consultation in Podčetrtek, where the mayor of the Podčetrtek Municipality, Peter Misja, gave an opening speech. The mayor commended a number of projects that are taking place in the municipality at the moment and pointed out that he was extremely pleased to welcome the government on today’s visit to the municipality, the first since 2007. At the consultation, ministers spoke mainly about projects in the region in the fields of defence, economy, education, justice, culture, internal affairs, environment, and spatial planning. The importance of spa tourism and projects implemented in the region within the framework of cohesion funds were given special focus.
In terms of area, the Savinjska statistical region is the fourth largest in Slovenia, and the third largest in terms of population. It comprises of 31 municipalities. Since 1995, the natural population growth in the Savinjska region has been very similar to that in the whole of Slovenia. Following positive growth from 2005 to 2016, it has been negative in the last four years. The largest employment centre is Celje, followed by Velenje. Nineteen thousand people from other municipalities in Slovenia come to work in Celje. Alongside Celje, Nazarje and Zreče are the municipalities featuring a distinctively high share of the active working population.
In June 2021, almost 33,000 people in the Savinjska region were employed in manufacturing. This is 6% more than a year ago. The Savinjska region also has 1,300 people employed in the mining industry. In 2020, the region recorded approximately 1.2 million tourist overnight stays, ranking third by region across Slovenia. Domestic tourists accounted for 77% of all overnight stays. The region has about 10,000 agricultural holdings cultivating almost 64,000 hectares of agricultural land. It has the third largest area of agricultural land by region and the second largest number of agricultural holdings. The average monthly net salary of those employed in the Savinjska region amounted to 1,105 euros in 2020, which was approximately 104 euros less than the Slovenian average.
In the municipality of Zreče, Prime Minister Janez Janša and the Mayor of Zreče, Boris Podvršnik, M.Sc., spoke about the municipality’s key projects as well as about its economic success, tourism and future projects. They also touched upon infrastructure projects and sustainable mobility measures. The talks also focused on the pilot project “Mesto generacij” (City of Generations) aimed at making connections, intergenerational cooperation and providing institutional care services for the elderly in Zreče.
Peter Dermol, the Mayor of Velenje, and the Prime Minister mainly discussed the restructuring of the Savinjska region and the fair transition, as well as infrastructure and other projects and investments in Velenje and the wider region. Prime Minister Janša and Mayor Dermol also talked about health care in Velenje, acquisition of funds and the Recovery and Resilience Facility. They also devoted some attention to the issue and importance of decentralisation.
As part of the visit, Minister of Digital Transformation, Mark Boris Andrijanič, visited the Velenje School Centre, met with representatives of the company KLS Ljubno, and visited the dairy Mlekarna Celeia with the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food, Jože Podgoršek.
The Prime Minister also visited the Diocese of Celje, where he met with the Bishop of Celje, Msgr Dr Maksimiljan Matjaž. They discussed the work of the Celje-based charity, Caritas, vulnerable groups, the importance of the Teharje Memorial Park and the preservation of religious cultural heritage as part of Slovenian identity. Afterwards, the Prime Minister stopped in the bookstore of Celjska Mohorjeva družba. The publishing house Mohorjeva družba is celebrating its 170th anniversary this year, and its management is extremely proud of this milestone.
Prime Minister Janez Janša also met with the Mayor of Celje, Bojan Šrot. The two discussed an environmentally significant topic, the rehabilitation of the Celje basin, a project that addresses the area’s legacy of heavy industry. They also spoke about the issue of lump sum payments for municipalities and considered the epidemiological situation, the healthcare situation and the issue of long-term care.
The visit to the Savinjska region concluded with a public debate in Celje, where the region’s development actors talked about the region’s challenges and opportunities.
At the consultation, Minister of Education, Dr Simona Kustec, pointed out that almost 18 million euros were earmarked for co-financing kindergartens and schools in the region. “Many of the projects that were approved a few weeks ago are already in the active phase of construction. In places where the natural growth is very good, we will provide infrastructure – kindergartens and schools,” she pointed out and reminded everyone, among other things, that last year we had an apparent media problem when some people refused to wear masks in kindergartens and schools. “About a month later, we had to close schools and kindergartens. Today, we are talking about testing and vaccination. If we want the schools and kindergartens to stay open, we should all get vaccinated.”
“Please, do not call us ministers to ask who should be the exception to the RVT (recovered, vaccinated, tested) rule, but instead do your best to make sure that testing will become unnecessary. If every doctor vaccinated five people a day, we would have 5,000 newly vaccinated people in a day,” the Prime Minister pointed out, among other things, adding that all these expenses for testing are unnecessary because vaccination is free. “Today, the National Assembly is discussing investments in healthcare in the next five years. If this debate had taken place ten years ago, we might have more capacity today, and the measures might have been milder.”
Minister of Health Janez Poklukar emphasised that the RVT rule should instead be applied in the VRT order (vaccinated, recovered, tested). “The ‘T’ part should become smaller and smaller. We are currently buying time with testing, in order to achieve sufficient vaccination coverage. Let’s end the agony of covid-19 and get vaccinated. All of us. There are enough vaccines. I urge everyone to get vaccinated because this is the only way to ensure that we will be able to reopen our society and stop talking about the RVT rule.”
“Our government supports regional development. We understand that Slovenia is not just the capital, and within this understanding, a lot of measures will be presented in the future that will enable support for business ideas,” said Minister Zdravko Počivalšek and explained why he is optimistic. “Firstly, because the country is in an excellent condition due to all the measures that have already been taken – our credit ratings are the best they have ever been. And on the other hand, we also have five sources of different European funding.” According to the Minister, the economy in the Savinjska region is still at the level where it was in 2019. “Although the positive development trend had stopped due to the coronavirus, the government’s measures kept the economic activity at the level where it was in 2019.”
Minister Jože Podgoršek said that different tenders for the total amount of around 183 million euros would be issued this year. “Right now, the most interesting thing in the region is the current tender, namely, 15 million euros for the development of non-economic activities on farms. We are talking about agrotourism, which is well-developed here.”
The Government Communication Office
