Role of public administration in creating business friendly environment Ljubljana, 6 October 2015 Stratis KASTRISSIANAKIS European Commission Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs

AGENDA State of play The role of Public Administration for Growth and Jobs Further Unlocking Slovenia's potential 2

Slovenia's investment dropped by 40% and has not yet recovered 3 Good export performance is fuelling growth A remarkable turnaround… …but still some challenges exist Source: European Commission Spring Forecast

Slovenia ranks below average on competitiveness indicators World Bank: 50 countries perform better than Slovenia World Economic Forum: Slovenia advanced 11 spots - but still in the 57th place 4 Source: Doing Business 2015Source: WEF Global Competitiveness Report

5 Several areas for improvement It takes more than 6 months to get a construction permit in Slovenia => uncertainty for investors areas to watch out: papaying taxes, complexity of administrative procedures and burden of government regulations Source: Doing Business 2015 Time to pay taxes Complexity of adm. procedures Regulatory burden Source: SBA 2015

6 Foreign direct investor surveys identify public administration as a bottleneck Source: Slovenia as a destination of FDI SPIRIT Survey Bottlenecks reported by FDI Required priority measures to eliminate bottlenecks Topics related to public administration

Implementation capacity is key for success but Slovenia lags behind peer countries and EU average 7 Source: Public Administration Scoreboard 2014 Several areas for improvement Effective implementation Strategic capacity

Improving Business Environment: Why Public Administration is so important?  Policy makers, implementers, service providers, regulators but also…  …investors and procurers  Administrative and institutional capacities and effectiveness of PA is crucial for growth and jobs  Improving the efficiency of PA: key priority of the European Semester 8

Country Specific Recommendations have focused on Public Administration 9 Business environment Public administration Judicial Public administration: Take effective measures to fight corruption, enhancing transparency and accountability, and introducing external performance evaluation and quality control procedures. Ensure that the reforms adopted to improve the efficiency of civil justice help reduce the length of proceedings. Reduce obstacles to doing business in Slovenia in key areas for economic development rendering the country more attractive to foreign direct investment particularly through accelerated liberalisation of regulated professions, reduction of administrative burden including leaner authorisation schemes Country report 2015 NRP 2015 Bilateral meetings

The role of PA in the company's different life cycles 10 Reporting of Corporate information Paying taxes Complying with permitting procedures Employing workers Registering property Memberships Tax and Insurance Publication Proofs of qualification Administrative & registration requirements Documents preparation Customs clearance and inspections Ports and terminal handling Inland transportation and handling Regulator: streamline and simplify red tape Service Provider: provide easy, fast and cheap access to public services Initiation of court proceedings Assessment of restructuring plan Restructuring: Haircut for creditors Liquidation: disposal of assets

The role of PA and company's different life cycles 11 Streamline permitting (pre permit, e-permit, fast track) Cutting incidence of late payments Reduce number of tax declarations E-payment of taxes Removing min. cap requirements e-Services e - government Reducing statistical burden on start ups Facilitating access equity financing Simplify import/export procedures E-customs Risk based goods inspections Regulator: Ex ante and ex post evaluations, Competitiveness Proofing, SME test Service Provider: Single Points of Contact, One Stop shops, Investment Hubs, e- government Ensure second chance for honest entrepreneurs Early warning mechanisms Case management Ensure transparency in insolvency procedure Specialised courts

12 Important progress has been made… Mitigate negative impact of grey economy Initiatives Objective Reduce time to start a business in Slovenia Organize modern and efficient public administration Reduce bureaucracy by 25% Establish single point of access for businesses Internationalisation strategy: Increase exports

…but shift focus on prioritisation and implementation? 13 Single document => Need to prioritize and coordinate across ministries Several strategic documents Industrial Policy, Innovation Strategy, Smart specialization strategy, Internationalization strategy => Is coherence between various activities ensured? Some measures in the single document have missed the original deadline Clear responsibility and project organization for implementation and monitoring? Implementation & monitoring Prioritisation

Focus on some big but easy wins 14 Time to implement: 1-2: 2015 – mid : mid 2016 – : after 2017 Cost to implement 1/2: low 3/4: medium 5/5- high Size of bubble: Impact on investment Illustration of possible measures Prioritisation Implementation Coordination

15