On Tuesday, 8 January 2013, the Acting Director General of the International Center for Promotion of Enterprises (ICPE), Mr. Janez Podobnik and the president of the PanSlovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD), mag. Kristjan Verbič signed a Memorandum of cooperation between the two institutions, with which synergetic effects and cooperation on a wider international market will be additionally strengthened. The Memorandum was signed as part of the efforts for further successful and closer cooperation between ICPE and the international investor programs invest to Slovenija (investo.si) and International Investors' Network (investo.international), while there are additional options of expanding the international activities of VZMD also as part of the plans and presence of ICPE in Africa, Asia and South-East Europe.

The aim of cooperation is to develop common content through which alliances between ICPE member states and VZMD as well as between international organizations, of which VZMD is an active member (World Federation of Investors – WFI and European Federation of Financial Service Users - EuroFinuse), and their member states (55 national organizations of shareholders and investors). The emphasis is on the areas of active shareholding, education, strengthening entrepeneurship, investments and social responsibility. (To view investo.tv's video report from the recent international conference ICPE and KEN network about the Benefits and Challenges of Public-Private Partnerships for Improving Energy Efficiency, click the picture to the right).

The program investo.si was established in 2008 by VZMD, prior to the first investor conference and the »investo Expo« convention in Ljubljana. Since then, they have arranged notablepresentations of business opportunities in Belgium, Bolgaria, Brazil, France, Holland, Libanon, Luxemburg, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and Great Britian for their members, while strong presence in the international investment market on similar conventions, conferences and presentations is expected to continue also in the future (you are welcome to view video reports on www.vzmd.tv andwww.investo.tv).

In 2012 the international investment programs investo.si and invest-to.net, among other events, organized the World's Largest Meeting of Investors' Representatives: »Investors' Week«, during which Ljubljana's Cankar hall also hosted the international investor conference and the »investoExpo« convention. The meeting of over one hundred investors' representatives from 55 countries, which was supported by the European Comission, was organized by the PanSlovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD) together with the international associations of shareholders and investors EuroFinuse, Euroshareholders and the World Federation of Investors (WFI), which only in Europe directly represent over 4 million individual investors.

VZMD invites all companies, institutions, communities and individuals to take advantage of the opportunity to participate and include their informative and promotional material and investment projects on the web portals, literature and happenings at the many anticipated opportunities in the year 2013:

• BAKU – visit of business delegation, during the visit of the Prime Minister of Slovenia, Janez Janša with the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, dr. Ilham Alyev, January 2013,
• PERU, CHILE – visit of EU business delegation with the Vice President of the European Commission Antonio Tajani during the EU-Latin America Summit (in confirmation process),
• LONDON – Conference of European Banking Authority (EBA), January 2013 (in confirmation process),
• BRUSSELS – International Conference of the European Confederation of Directors' Associations (ecoDa), EuropeanIssuers and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), February 2013 (in confirmation process),
• BRUSSELS – International Investors' conference and General Assembly of the European Federation of Financial Services Users (EuroFinuse), March 2013,
• LJUBLJANA – "Kapital" convention, April 2013,
• LJUBLJANA – Slovene Capital Market Days 2013, April 2013,
• PARIS – OECD Forum, May 2013,
• International Investors' Conference, June, 2013 (in confirmation process, to be held in one of the EU countries),
• MADRID – International Investors' Conference and the General Assembly of the World Federation of Investors (WFI), September 2013,
• LJUBLJANA – Ljubljana Forum, October 2013,
• LJUBLJANA – FDI Awards, November 2013,
• VIENNA – International Investors' Conference, date not yet determined (in confirmation process),
• Annual conference of the Slovenian Association for Quality and Excellence, date and location not yet determined.

Thus, after successful the presentations and activities of 2012:

BLED – International conferences "India and Slovenia as Business Partners" and "CloudForum", March 2012,

BRUSSELS – International Conference at the Brussels Stock Exchange, March 2012,

LJUBLJANA – Visit of International Monetary Fund (IMF) representative responsible for the area of International Capital Market Regulation, Richard Britton, at the VZMD headquarters, April 2012,

BLED – International conference "Bled Forum", April 2012,

LJUBLJANA - "Kapital" convention and Slovene Capital Market Day 2012, April 2012, LJUBLJANA – International conference "Africa Day", organized by the International Center for Promotion of Entrepeneurship (ICPE), the Slovenian Association for International Relations (SDMO), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia, May 2012,

MARIBOR – International conference Knowledge Economy Network (KEN) 2012, June 2012,

SAO PAOLO – Visit of business delegation during the visit of the Deputy Prime Minister mag. Radovan Žerjav, June 2012,

BLED – Bled Strategic Forum and Business lunch with the Secretary- General of OECD, Jose Angel Gurria, September 2012,

LJUBLJANA – World's Largest Meeting of Investors' Representatives "investors' Week", international investors' conference "investo Expo" and a conference on educating financial services users, September 2012,

LJUBLJANA – Mayor's reception and award ceremony of Euroshareholders and VZMD award "Shareholders' Friendly Company", September 2012,

PTUJ – Slovenian Development Days on International Development Cooperation and a business conference on International Integration of Local Entrepreneurship, October, 2012,

LJUBLJANA – International Conference on Benefits and Challenges of Public Private Partnerships for improving Energy Efficiency, October 2012,

PORTOROŽ - Slovenian Association for Quality and Excellence (SZKO) awards ceremony, November 2012,

BRUSSELS – "European Public Affairs Awards" award ceremony, November 2012,

LJUBLJANA – roundtable discussion "The Future of the Eurozone" with Maria João Rodrigues, Special Advisor to the European Commission, November 2012,

WIESBADEN – International Investors' Conference, December 2012,

VZMD would like to invite companies and institutions to continue to participate in and benefit from the opportunities offered by the programs investo.si and investo.international in 2013 and also participate in all upcoming opportunities and events. Membership in the above mentionedinternational programs enables companies, institutions and projects, for which they require partners or investors to be seen on both web portals (in English), the production and use of professional video materials from www.vzmd.tv and www.investo.tv, the inclusion of informative and promotional materials at important investor conventions, meetings of representatives of national and trans-national organizations of investors and shareholders,the possibility of active representation in individual countries or environments, presentation in the commemorative magazine"investo Expo", promotional leaflets, folders, etc.