Port operator Luka Koper is looking at large infrastructure projects

which are $extremely capital intensive$, Veselko told the

panel.

He said the company could alone finance investments only up to

a certain extent, but for anything more alternative sources would need to

be found. $In this context a question of a strategic partner is likely

to arise very soon,$ he stressed.

With transshipment on the

increase, Luka Koper is at a watershed moment, Veselko said, adding that if

things are to be move forward, a $concrete form of cooperation with a

strategic partner would become urgently necessary$.

Professor at

the Ljubljana Faculty of Economics Jože Damijan on the other hand believes

that a strategic partner is not necessary at this point, $but if

Slovenian politics fails to decide what to do with the strategic

development of the port, this will be unavoidable$.

Luka Koper

is stagnating and is currently in a very bad capital condition, and would

as such need a strategic partner, he stressed.

In the long run, a

port authority would need to be formed, together with at least one more

concessionary in addition to Luka Koper. The second concessionary would

build a third pier and a second rail track between Divača and Koper,

Damijan believes.

$This would lead to a normal management

structure and utilization of port capacities as is in the case of majority

of other ports in Western Europe,$ he said.

Some of the problems

Luka Koper is facing are also due to state ownership, he believes. $If

the port operator was to be privatised through a strategic partner and the

state stake reduced to say 25%, then the politics would lose its influence

and this would have beneficial effect on the port's future growth,$ he

pointed out.

Veselko meanwhile stressed that a port authority would

have both strengths and weaknesses: $If we look back, the benefits of

the current configuration outweigh the weaknesses.$ He stressed that a

strategic partner would not necessary mean that a port authority needs to

be created.