EMO World Tour: The journey continues to Slovenia
The capital of Slovenia is the next stop of the EMO World Tour. With nearly 300.000 inhabitants, Ljubljana is the largest city in the country. Furthermore it is the cultural, economic and political center of Slovenia. Here, Journalists and trade visitors met Christoph Miller, head of the trade fair department at the German Machine Tool Builders’ Association (VDW) who presented the EMO Hannover 2017 during a press conference. “The EMO Hannover is the ideal platform not only for big investors,” is Christoph Miller’s explicit message to Slovenian trade visitors. “We are particularly keen to encourage mid-tier users of machine tools to find out in detail what the world of metalworking has to offer.” At the last EMO Hannover in 2013, almost 600 Slovenian trade visitors followed this call and we are looking forward to a reunion!
The Slovenian economy is developing favorably on a broad basis
The Slovenian economy is on the right track. For 2017, the EU Commission forecasts an economic growth of 2.6 percent after increases of 2.3 and 2.2 percent in the two previous years 2015/2016. The economic growth is spurred by investment and consumption. The rise in consumer spending is mainly due to the favorable labor market developments and rising wages.
Gross capital investment is expected to rise by 5.3 per cent in 2017 following a sharp decline in the previous year. This is based on the expectation that state investments, which are co-financed with EU funds, will increase again after the changeover to the new funding period. In addition, there are growing investments in companies' machinery and equipment, mainly due to high capacity utilization, positive business expectations and an improved profit situation.
Strong impulses for Slovenian economic growth emanate from exports. The competitiveness of Slovenian products on third markets is improving constantly.
To make further progress, investments in modern machine tools are required. According to VDW World Statistics most recently machines with a value of 155 million Euro were imported in 2016, which is an increase of 13 percent. Germany is the main supplier with a share of 35 percent, followed by the USA, Italy, Taiwan and Austria.
Photo: VDW