VIDEO REPORT - 17th Bled Strategic Forum and preparations for the next international tour of the VZMD business-investor programs

The most important international foreign policy conference in Slovenia was characterized primarily by the crisis of the multilateral order and the response of the international communities to the new challenges, including the role and the future of the European Union. For the first time ever, the forum was attended by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who opened the conference together with the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tanja Fajon. The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the attendees via a video call.

The conference was attended by over 400 prominent guests, decision-makers, businesspeople, and opinion leaders, including the presidents of Iceland and Moldova, the prime ministers of Albania, Croatia, and Slovenia, and other ministers from as many as fifteen countries. At the invitation of the organizers, the forum was also attended by the VZMD President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, who had the privilege to escort the President of the European Commission, off the venue. Mr. Verbič took the two-day event as an opportunity for numerous meetings and talks concerning the efforts of VZMD, as well as their international activities and business-investor programs Invest to Slovenia (investo.si) and International Investors' Network (investo.international).

Since 2012, VZMD has been an active participant at the Bled Strategic Forum (2021 VIDEO), which was last year followed by the high-profile International investor conference, organized by VZMD and the European Federation of Investors at Bled (VIDEO) as an accompanying event under the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU.

Following this year's forum and three international tours of VZMD (VIDEO) – Ghent-Brussels-Monaco-Dublin-Cork-London-Athens-Limasol-Brussels-Ankara-Istanbul – Mr. Verbič plans to start the 4^th tour. This one will begin in Prague with the EUROFI Forum – the meeting of the highest representatives from the financial industry alongside the meeting of the European ministers of the economy and finance (ECOFIN) – which always takes place in the country holding the Presidency of the Council of the EU. These meetings have become a tradition for Mr. Verbič, who attends them as a representative of the Executive Board of the European Federation of Investors (BETTER FINANCE).