EVENTS

Economic seminar: Ten years of defence management

An economic seminar will take place in Bled on January 28 and 29 entitled Ten years of defence management - security and stability in transition. The central theme of the meeting, organised by the Ministry of the Economy in co- operation with the Economic Directorate of the NATO Alliance will be regional, European and global dimension of transition viewed from a security perspective.

The participants, with a strong international presence, will be welcomed by the American ambassador to Slovenia, H.E. Johnny Young, and distinguished experts from the twelve State Members of the NATO Alliance and states belonging to the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) will put forward their views. They will present questions of the economic dimensions of security, the so-called defence economy. The central themes will be connected with the high costs of transition and social adaptation, the pitfalls of economic regression, the collapse of institutions and the difficulties of ensuring the rule of law, reorienting trade and investment currents and changing the rules of economic co-operation in transition states, as conditions of greater security and social stability. In the second part, the participants of the seminar will discuss new approaches to the economic revitalisation of Southeast Europe and prospects for better regional economic co-operation and better inclusion in European economic integrations. Questions of a more favourable business environment, a firm and predictable legal basis for business activities, reforms in the sphere of the judiciary, and economic revitalisation of Southeast Europe with the aid of foreign investment, belong within this framework.

The participants will include a large number of representatives of national parliaments of European states and a number of experts in the area of policy in connection with defence financing, or the area of the so-called defence economy. Slovene representatives, within the framework of the seminar, will present the experience of Slovenia in relation to the influence on the economy of establishing a defence system and their views on the regional dimension of economic co-operation, with a stress on increasing stability and avoiding