On the scale of the Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI), Slovenia has always moved between the 25th and 28th place, showing that its position has been more or less the same. A strong Slovenia's point is that there are few areas where it is weak. It has an attractive image as regards the quality of life, but it can be further improved. On the other hand, Slovenia has such tax and social system that it is expensive to bring people into the country.

It has a good education system, but caution is required. Like elsewhere around the world, everybody would like to study management and social studies, and nobody would study engineering, natural sciences, technical fields. And Slovenia will need such experts. One should not only build on very good universities, but on very good vocational schools, adjusted to the 21st century, providing very good technical engineers, coders, medical technicians etc. This also makes an environment attractive, encourages growth and enables higher salaries. If you cannot grow, you cannot afford higher salaries.

One of the most important aspects measured by the index is how close is the cooperation between the state institutions, the business community and the educational institutions. None of them can change anything on its own; therefore, very close cooperation of them all is required. An area where Slovenia does not achieve good results is the relationship between the business environment and state institutions.  Looking at the figures for Slovenia, there is actually no such cooperation. According to statistics, Slovenia has one of the 10 worst results as regards the cooperation between the economy and the state. And it is even getting lower because of the fears about corruption. Otherwise, there is no obvious distinctive advantage that would make Slovenia attractive and more competitive. Here, there is room for large improvement and solutions, about which I will speak at the Management Congress 2018.

dr. Paul A. L. Evans, Professor Emeritus at the INSEAD faculty and Founding Director of the Global Talent Competitiveness Index