Update November 2000: Slovenia

1. Public sector

The demands for the increased security, flexibility and efficiency in electronic commerce and easiness of electronic business operations are stronger and stronger around the world and also in Slovenia. These demands are coming from the public sector and also from the companies from the areas of industry, health insurance, insurance and banks. This issue is becoming more and more important also because of the fast technological development in Slovenia. That is why the Government Center for Informatics established a new agency called SIGOV-CE. This agency takes care for the attestation of the digital signature and public keys, which is the bases for electronic commerce, and it has just prepared a working draft of a law on electronic operations.

In the last months we witnessed the battle between the organization called ARNES (Academic and Research Network of Slovenia), through whom all the schools and universities have an access to the internet, and the Slovenian telecommunication company TELEKOM Slovenije d.d.. The issue of dispute was Telekom's new prices for Internet access. Until now the schools and universities were able to access the Internet free of charge. At the end of negotiations, government decided that schools and universities still need to have a free access to the Internet. ARNES will still provide a free access to the internet for them, which will be sponsored by the government and the TELEKOM Slovenije d.d..

Faculty of Social Sciences every six months provides us with the public research about the use of Internet in Slovenia. After the research they conduct a report, from which we can see, that the use of the Internet is really growing, especially in companies. According to report, 96% of the large Slovenian companies (LORG segment) and 90% of the middle Slovenian companies (MORG segment) have Internet access. On the SORG segment there is a smaller percentage – about 75% of the small Slovenian companies have Internet access. Also, the report says, people are getting more and more confident in e-banking, since this is also the cheapest way to pay a bill and there is no need to go out of the home and stay in a long queues.

After pilot project in Krško and three years of development, ZZZS (The Institute of Health Insurance of Slovenia) completed the health insurance card project. Estimated costs of the project are 30 million german marks. This card will assure easy access to the patient's data about the insurance. The health Insurance Card is a modern electronic document offering, both to insured persons and to health professionals, employers and health insurance providers, a range of benefits. The cards have been issued to all residents with a valid compulsory health insurance in Slovenia. The card holds essential and stable data involved in the implementation of health care rights deriving from health insurance.

In July, Ministry of Economic Affairs has introduced the Slovene e-city project, which will provide e-services for residents and companies. The main idea behind this project is to collect all the existing e-business solutions in the country, analyze them according to predefined criteria and then use them in different government offices and companies, which will provide end users with ability to accomplish all types of services - private, business and public (government) through the electronic way.

Until now companies were taking care of its financial transactions through the APP (Payment Agency of the Republic of Slovenia), which were in every commune. The main role of the Agency was organizing payments among legal entities in the country, as well as between legal entities and natural persons. Each company has a representative at the Agency, who was dedicated only for their company. In September 2000 began a special transfer of payments, and a transfer of legal entities accounts from the Agency to banks. Contemporaneously, during the time of the Agency's operation, the Agency must perform all of its present tasks and fulfill, i.e. the task of preparing statistics and informing for the Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Public Legal Records and Services (the AJPES), and the task regarding public financial revenue and expenditure in a special organizational unit of the Ministry of Finance – the Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Public Payments (the UJP).

2. Company Watch and Newcomers

Slovene mobile services market is still increasing. According to the information supplied by the Slovenian three mobile providers MOBITEL, DEBITEL and SIMOBIL there are about 1 million mobile users at the moment in Slovenia, which has about 2 million inhabitants.

Telemach d.o.o. is changing management board and business strategy. After a good and ambitious start Telemach d.o.o. is facing lots of problems at the moment. The struggle with its major competitor Telekom Slovenije d.d. was hard and Telemach was not able to bear it. Not being able to realize strategic business goals resulted in the new management board of the company, which was announced in the late September. With the new management came also the announcement of the new Telemach's strategy, which is now limited only to become one of the leading providers of Internet access and Internet services.

3. Mergers and Acquisitions

British Investment Group EMP, which is strongly backed by USA capital, has bought 14% of the Telemach d.o.o.. Other owners after this acquisition are BTC with 20%, Meglic Telecom with 15, Slovenian Railroads with 11, Gorenje, Prvinvest, Eon and Masterline each with 10% and City of Ljubljana with 0,016%.