Pursuant to the Public Finance Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, Nos. 79/99, 124/00, 79/01, 30/02, 56/02 - ZJU, 110/02 – ZDT-B), Act Governing FDI Promotion and Internationalisation of Companies (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia No. 86/2004), the Budget of the Republic of Slovenia for the year 2006 (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia No. 116/05), Act on the Implementation of the Budget of the Republic of Slovenia for 2006 and 2007 (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia No. 116/05), the Rules Regarding the Procedures for the Implementation of the Budget of the Republic of Slovenia (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 108/04 ), Articles 16 and 30 of the Public Administration Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 24/05 – UPB3), the Programme of Measures for the Promotion of Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness for the Period 2002 – 2006 (Decision of the Committee for Oversight of State Aids No. 301-3/02-BP-265 as of 27 March 2002, the Amendment No. 2019/02-BP-915 as of 22 July 2002 and No. 444-01-12/2004/2 as of 20 April 2004),
The Republic of Slovenia, the Ministry of the Economy, Kotnikova 5, 1000 Ljubljana, hereby invites
A P P L I C A T I O N S
UNDER THE INWARD INVESTMENT COST-SHARING GRANT SCHEME
IN 2006
1. Budgetary recipient
The Republic of Slovenia, the Ministry of the Economy, Kotnikova 5, Ljubljana.
2. The object of the Invitation for Applications
The object of the Invitation for Applications under the Inward-Investment Cost-Sharing Grant Scheme is the co-financing of start-up costs under greenfield investments to be made by eligible applicants – foreign persons governed by private law (hereinafter: foreign investors) in the territory of the Republic of Slovenia.
A start-up investment shall mean an investment in fixed assets for the purpose of establishing a new production facility or for the purpose of expanding existing facility within the meaning of significant changes to the product or the production process of the existing operations in the Republic of Slovenia (by means of rationalisation, diversification or modernisation) in the manufacturing, service or research & development activity.
For the purpose of this Invitation for Applications, neither the expansion of the existing output of the products being already produced by the eligible applicant and his related legal persons in the Republic of Slovenia nor the increase in the volume of services already being rendered by the eligible applicant and his related legal persons in the Republic of Slovenia shall qualify for co-financing.
No investments in the following activities shall be deemed eligible for co-financing: production, processing and marketing of agricultural products as determined in the Appendix I to the Treaty Establishing the European Community, fisheries, coal-mining, steel industry, maritime transport, man-made fibres industry, manufacturing of arms and ammunition.
2.1) The purpose of the Invitation for Applications
The purpose of the Invitation for Applications is to boost attractiveness of Slovenia as a location for foreign direct investment by lowering entry (start-up) costs to the investors whose investment will have a favourable impact on the creation of new jobs, knowledge and technology transfer, facilitation of balanced regional development, and will boost the co-operation between foreign investors and Slovenian companies.
2.2) Objective of the Invitation for Applications
The objective of the Invitation for Applications is the creation between 1,000 and 1,500 new jobs for a period of three years following the allocation of co-financing.
2.3) Eligible Applicants
The Invitation for Applications is open to foreign investors, whilst the beneficiaries of co-financing may only be companies registered in the Republic of Slovenia in which they hold an interest of at least 10 per cent of equity or foreign investors' subsidiaries.
Applications are invited from eligible applicants with:
- Investment projects in the manufacturing sector that envisage the opening of at least 50 new jobs within three years of the grant allocation. The minimum value of the investment for which grants are allocated in accordance with the Instructions on Priority Areas for Allocating Incentives of Key Importance to Balanced Regional Growth (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 44/01), shall amount to:
- 1 million euros in the regions classified on the regional list A considered to be underdeveloped (Pomurska, Podravska, Zasavska and Spodnjeposavska), and on the lists A, B, C and D territories of the municipalities coping with specific development problems;
- 2 million euros in the regions classified on the regional list B (Savinjska, Koroška, Notranjsko-kraška and Jugovzhodna Slovenija);
- 3 million euros in the regions classified on the regional list C (Goriška and Gorenjska);
- 4 million euros in the regions classified on the regional list D (Obalno-kraška and Osrednjeslovenska).
- Investment projects in an internationally marketable service activity envisaging the creation of at least 10 new jobs within three years of the grant allocation. The minimum value of the investment for the grant allocation shall amount to 1 million euros. A service activity eligible for preferential treatment shall be among the following:
- Customer Contact Centres,
- Shared Services Centres,
- Logistics and Distribution, and
- Regional Headquarters.
- Investment projects in research & development activity envisaging the creation of at least 10 new jobs within three years of the grant allocation. The minimum value of the investment for the grant allocation shall amount to 1 million euros. An activity carried out by a company or a self-contained organisational unit whose core activity is the research and experimental development in the area of technology is considered a research & development activity.
The minimum value of investment shall be considered to be investment in fixed tangible assets and of intangible long-term fixed assets only concessions, patents, licences, trade names and service brands and similar property rights, which have to be posted in the beneficiary’s balance sheet in accordance with Slovenian Accounting Standards. The beneficiary of the co-financing has to contribute from own resources at least 25% of the total financing of the investment project.
The creation of new jobs shall be determined as net increase of the number of employees in the company – grant beneficiary in comparison to the average number of employees in the year preceding the submission of the application under the cost-sharing grant scheme, account being taken of full- and part-time employment, as well as employment for determined time. New jobs must be created within three years of the grant allocation. The investment project and newly created jobs must be kept in the region for at least five years.
The following companies shall not be deemed eligible for the grant:
- they have received co-financing from other funds of the central or local government budget or EU budget for the same purpose,
- a final court ruling or a final ordinance of another competent body court or out-of-court bankruptcy proceedings, compulsory composition procedure or winding up have been instituted against them,
- as at 31 December 2005 they posted sub-standard capital ratio in the sense of Article 10 of the Company Financial Operations Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, Nos. 54/99, 110/99, 97/00, 50/02 and 93/02),
- they carry outstanding liabilities to the Republic of Slovenia,
- since 2000 they have received co-financing or there are pending state aids for the bail-out and for the restructuring distressed companies,
- they are on the list of the companies not to do business with under the provisions of the Corruption Prevention Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 43/05).
The companies operating in the following economic sectors will be reviewed by the Committee for State Aids: shipbuilding, transport, motor vehicle manufacturing industry.
2.4) Eligible costs
The following costs shall be deemed eligible for grant allocation:
- costs of providing utility connections and infrastructure facilities for the building site,
- costs incurred under the construction or purchase of premises,
- costs incurred under the purchase of plant and equipment, and
- costs of gross wages/salaries for newly employed staff (for a two-year period).
2.5) Applications
An application shall be deemed complete if all the documents required under the Invitation for Applications have been submitted by the deadline for the submission of applications.
2.6) Amending applications
The Evaluation Committee shall not later than 8 days of the opening of applications invite in writing. The content of the investment project shall not be subject to amendments. Incomplete applications not duly amended by respective applicants by the deadline for amendments shall be rejected.
2.7) Award criteria
All complete applications meeting the terms and conditions of participation and compliant with the purpose of the Invitation for Applications will be assessed by the Evaluation Committee in accordance with the following award criteria:
Criterion / Score1 / The applicant's terms of references / 25
2 / The portion of domestic suppliers and the impact of the investment on productivity of other domestic companies operating in the same sector / 10
3 / Viability of the investment / going-concern / 10
4 / Research & development effects of the investment / 15
5 / The impact of the investment on human capital / 10
6 / Environmental impact assessment in the case of the investment in a manufacturing activity / The scope of international marketing of services in the case of investment projects in the service sector / 20
7 / The effects of the investment on development in the case that the region is classified as underdeveloped in economic terms / 10
TOTAL / 100
The threshold for the grant award is 60 points.
For further details about the award criteria and grant award system see the Application Documents.
3. Funds available under the Invitation for Applications
The amount of budgetary proceeds earmarked to the co-financing of investment projects in 2006 is 1,000,000,000 tolars. The proceeds earmarked to that purpose have been set aside under the budgetary item 5343. The amount of grant to be made available under an individual Invitation for Applications, being the ceiling for the grant allocations, may be increased by any undisbursed funds within the framework of the same budgetary item only in the case that complaints have been resolved favourably or applications have been subsequently evaluated.
The Evaluation Committee will assess investment projects in line with the above criteria. The amount of the grant will be determined on the basis of the evaluation criteria, the number of new jobs, and within the framework of funds available for disbursement. The amount of co-financing may not exceed 40% (if the investment is located in the statistical regions SKTE-3: Pomurska, Podravska, Koroška, Savinjska, Zasavska, Spodnjeposavska, Jugovzhodna Slovenia, Gorenjska, Notranjsko-kraška, Goriška and Obalnokraška), i.e. 35% (if the investment is located in Osrednjeslovenska statistical region SKTE-3) of eligible costs of the total financing of the particular investment project.
In so far as it might happen that the aggregate value of the expected co-financing of eligible cost incurred under the investment projects that have qualified for co-financing by exceeding the threshold, exceed the funding available under the Invitation for Applications, the funds shall be allocated by taking into account the achieved score, so as to give priority to those projects with higher scores.
In the event of several projects with the same score, the project envisaging more jobs to be created will be selected; in so far as these projects meet the same criterion, the order in which the applications were entered in the Ministry’s records shall be a determining factor.
4. Availability period
Costs incurred during the period from the signing of the contract until the date of the submission of the payment application, which shall be lot later than 31 October 2006, shall be deemed eligible for co-financing, provided they were paid by the payment application submission. The company may enclose to the payment application also evidence of eligible costs incurred during a period of three years following the signing of the contract subject to the submission of a bank guarantee issued for the relevant amount.
5. Submission of applications and closing dates
The Inward Investment Cost-Sharing Grant Scheme will remain open until 12 September 2006 i.e. until the earmarked budgetary proceeds have not been disbursed. A complete application duly drawn up in accordance with the Instructions to Applicants being part of the Application Documents shall be submitted to the following address: Ministry of the Economy, Kotnikova 5, 1000 Ljubljana, in a sealed envelope marked with »Ne odpiraj – vloga za razpis - spodbujanje TNI 2006« (DO NOT OPEN – PUBLIC TENDER FDI SCHEME) and the full address of the sender. The applications may be drawn up in the Slovenian or the English language.
Any and all applications not properly marked or arriving at the above-mentioned address after 12.00 a.m. CET on 12 September 2006, will not be deemed eligible for evaluation under the Invitation for Applications and will be returned unopened to the applicants.
All information contained in the applications opened by the Evaluation Committee is treated as information of public character with the exception of information clearly designated as a business secret by the applicant. Only a particular information i.e. a part of the application may be covered by business secrecy. No business secrecy obligation may apply to the entire application.
6. Applications opening
The opening of applications will be open to public. The Evaluation Committee will open the applications in the Conference Hall of the Ministry of the Economy, Kotnikova 5, Ljubljana:
- on Tuesday, 28 February 2006, at 14 CET,
- on Tuesday, 25 April 2006, at 14 CET,
- on Tuesday, 11 July 2006, at 14 CET,
- on Tuesday, 12 September 2006, at 14 CET.
The applications delivered at the main reception of the Ministry of the Economy, Kotnikova 5, 1000 Ljubljana, by 12.00 a.m. (noon) CET at the latest on the day of the opening will be examined at an individual opening of applications. All other applications will be examined at the following opening of applications.
7. Notification of Award
The eligible applicants will be duly notified of the grant-awarding results within 60 days of the day of the applications opening on the basis of the Evaluation Committee decision.
8. Application Documents
The Application Documents will be available in the Slovenian and the English language from the receptionist at the Ministry of the Economy of the Republic of Slovenia, Kotnikova 5, Ljubljana and from the Public Agency for Entrepreneurship and Foreign Investment, Kotnikova 28, Ljubljana every working day between 9.00 and 10.00 CET or on the websites: and The Application Documents may also be forwarded by e-mail in response to a request sent to the e-mail address: or .
9. Further information
Further information may be obtained every working day between 9.00 in 10.00 a.m. CET by dialling: +386 1 478 3557 and mobile phone numbers: +386 41 434 666 – contact person: Mr. Bojan Celar and by phone to +386 1 478 3703 – contact person: Mr. Rok Tomšič. For clarifications you may also send by e-mail to the e-mail address: , or by fax to: +386 1 478 35 99.
This Notice of the Invitation for Applications was published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 13/2006 on 10 February 2006