Slovenian Prime Minister Mrs Alenka Bratušek – after three successive visits at the investment conferences in Düsseldorf, Paris in Milan – yesterday opened Slovene-Russian Investment Conference in the eminent Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Moscow. The conference took place along her meeting with the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mr Dimitrij Medvedjev. VZMD President Mr Kristjan Verbič, M.Sc., also actively participated at the conference, and within the conference programme Mr Verbič presented to the assembled audience endeavours and opportunities within the framework of VZMD business-investment programmes: Invest to Slovenia (investo.si) and International Investors` Network (invest-to.net), and he concluded his presentation by PREMIERING THE VIDEO prepared for this occasion by investo.tv.

Apart from the Prime Minister Mrs Bratušek, the assembled audience at the Investment Conference was also addressed by the Minister of Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation Mr Nikolaj Nikiforov and Deputy Chairman of the Sberbank Board Mr Sergej Gorkov, and the latter has also participated at the round table discussion entitled "Investment Opportunities in the Republic of Slovenia" along with some other guest speakers: Deputy Chairman of the Russian metallurgical giant Koks Mr Sergey Frolov, the Slovene Ambassador to the Russian Federation, his excellency Mr Primož Šeligo, NLB representative in Moscow Mr Metod Dragonja and Director of RIKO company Mr Janez Škrabec. Director of SPIRIT Slovenia Mr Boštjan Skalar, SOD (Central Ownership Entity of Slovenia) board member Mr Matej Runjak, NLB representative in Moscow Mr Metod Dragonja and VZMD President presented to the participants of the conference business climate in Slovenia and the institutional support for foreign investors, and some Slovene companies and investment projects which are in the process of privatisation or selling of shares of the Republic of Slovenia, planned by the Slovenian Government.

While visiting Moscow VZMD President has had numerous bilateral discussions and meetings with some highly esteemed businessmen and investors (some of them have been invited to the conference due to their extremely successful cooperation with the colleagues from the Russian Association of Investors), and yesterday in the evening VZMD President attended the reception at the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Moscow, at the conclusion of the visits by the Prime Minister Mrs Bratušek and Defence Minister Mr Roman Jakič to Russia.

This has been Mr Verbič's third visit to Moscow this year – after participating inOctober's business delegation along the meeting of the Slovenian Foreign Minister with his Russian counterpart, and after a short visit in June after visiting Kazakhstan as a member of a business delegation. VZMD President is departing today for the Belorussian capital Minsk where he is going to be involved in the Slovene business delegation, and he is going to participate at the business conference there with B2B meetings. Suitable provisions have also been made this time to ensure successful presentations of companies, institutions and investment projects included in the two VZMD international business-investment programmes.

Quite a few successful presentations have been carried out this year in Astana, Almaty, Baku, Brussels, Bucharest, Cape Town, Vienna, Kiev, Ljubljana, Madrid, Moscow, New Delhi, Tokyo, Toronto and Zagreb, and at least two more visits have been planned for this year in Minsk and Moscow, therefore VZMD is pleased to invite all who would like to take part in the activities to contact VZMD investo.si programme coordinator by phone 031 770 771, or e-mail tratar@investo.si.