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Flextronics Facts & Figures in 2006 Number of companies: 1,644 Number of employees: 13,495 Revenue (in EUR): 2,421 mn Exports (in EUR): 330 mn Key export markets: Australia, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Moldavia, Montenegro, Norway, Russia, Serbia, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, USA (Source: AJPES 2007) Key products and services: ICT market in Slovenia, 2006 Source: Glas gospodarstva, Aug./Sept. 2006 Testimonial »The decision to invest in Slovenia speaks for itself. Slovenia's workforce is highly educated and technically qualified, and after two years we add with confidence that it is “worth every tolar”. Young enthusiastic engineers share our corporate values and take pride in serving discerning EU customers. The features that make Slovenia a great location are both business and personal. It is a safe and modern country, people are nice and it seems that everyone speaks English, so foreigners find their way around without any difficulty.« Elli Yaniv, General Manager Flextronics Semiconductor Flextronics Quality Workforce Slovenia’s ICT industry is generally regarded as one of the most vigorous areas. Its advance is a credit to human capital and well-developed ICT infrastructure is a result of an early commitment to making it one of national development priorities. Productivity in Industry and Services, 2006 Related GDP (PPP) per person employed in industry and services (in EUR) Source: IMD - World Competitiveness Yearbook, 2007 Innovative spirit and clever technical solutions are the qualities often found in Slovenian workforce. In the sector, there are nearly 13,500 mployees in over 1,600 companies. The pace of recruitment is a clear indicator that ICT is a booming business. From 2000 to 2006, headcount in ICT companies grew at 5.1% a year compared with the overall rate of employment in Slovenia of 0.4% a year. Expansion enjoyed by the companies into information technologies feeding on growing demand for ITC services has pushed the industry figures up. Estimated gross annual labour costs in ICT Industry for 2008 (Total cost per employee in EUR) Source: Adecco & JAPTI, 2008 Slovenia was quick in recognising the need for a pool of young talent educated for the “New Economy”. Computer science was included in the university curriculum some thirty years ago and since then courses in IT and informatics have become highly popular with students enrolling either in the University of Ljubljana or Maribor. Over the past few years, their number has surged and is expected to reach 7,000 soon. Secondary education programmes for computer science, electrical engineering and telecommunications have attracted over 9,200 attendees. A cutting edge of Slovenian workforce is command of foreign languages. International studies rank Slovenians at the European top. 91% of population can communicate in at least one world language with the English and German being most widespread (71% of population is able to communicate in at least two world languages). Nevertheless, language schools are still busy year round and companies encourage staff to brush up on their language skills on a regular basis. Quality Link to Regional Markets A central geopolitical position explains Slovenia's economic performance where ICT companies strongly contribute to its export mix. Forward-looking companies pushed the average annual export growth rate between 2000 and 2006 to 11.1%. Exporters of IT servecies account for nearly 34% of overall industry exports followed by providers of telecommunication services. Alongside Hermes Softlab, a leader in IT services in also across the national borders, there is Telargo specialised in developing and marketing of different products and software applications for a variety of industries and a client base that spans from the EU to the States, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates and Asian countries. Telekom Slovenije remains Slovenia’s leading exporter of telecommunication services. Slovenian companies are fostering their presence in foreign markets through outward direct investment. This trend is widely followed by ICT companies, particularly when investing in the emerging markets of ex-Yugoslav republics. Capital ties are also used to get a foothold in the markets of CIS countries. Thanks to its position and decades of fostering economic links with its neighbours, Slovenia is in a pole position to serve the markets in the region. The number of international companies setting up their regional hubs in Slovenia is rising attracted by the expertise of local managers, sales force and field engineers and their in-depth knowledge of the regional markets. They speak the language, they are familiar with legislation, they know their way around, and what’s most important there are no cross-cultural barriers for them. Quality Infrastructure Slovenia lies at the intersection of two Pan-european transport corridors for road and rail transport. Its transport and IT infrastructure is well-branched. The Adriatic port of Koper is the shortest maritime connection for cargo arriving from Asia to landlocked countries of central Europe through the Suez Canal. In terms of ICT infrastructure development, Slovenia is clearly ahead of other new EU Member States. On the scale used for the Digital Access Index (DAI) serving as a “yardstick” for comprehensive development of information society of a country, Slovenia’s 24th place means that it is the company of the countries enjoying a high access index and leaving behind some EU-15 countries such as Ireland, Spain, Greece and Portugal. Comparison of key information society indicators, 2006 Source: IMD - World Competitiveness Yearbook, 2007 In the group of ten new EU Member States, Slovenia along with Malta and Cyprus is the only new entrant boasting widespread XDSL services. Slovenia’s ADSL coverage was at the end of 2006 over 95%. To make headway in ICT, Slovenia has to keep the pace of modernisation and continue to upgrade information infrastructure, encourage acquisition of new knowledge and pro-active collaboration between companies and think-tanks as carriers of R & D. Productivity / value added per employee in 2006 Source: AJPES, 2007 Leading domestic and foreign-owned companies Faculties, research institutions and associations |
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JAPTI - Public Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Entrepreneurship and Foreign Investments disclamer |