The government adopted on Tuesday the National Reform Programme 2014-2015 that Slovenia needs to submit to the EU by the end of April.
The programme, which is mostly a continuation of existing reform efforts aimed at balancing the budget and kick-starting growth, will serve to the European Commission as a basis for issuing recommendations.
The programme perseveres the medium-term budgeting objectives - a general government deficit of 3.2% of GDP in 2014 and 2.5% in 2015 excluding one-off expenditure, the Finance Ministry wrote in a press release.
To kick-start growth Slovenia will use three pillars of measures: the financial pillar, corporate management and privatisation and the fiscal pillar.
Once imbalances are done away with, conditions will be in place for restoring economic growth and creating jobs, the government is convinced.
It moreover stressed that measures addressing macroeconomic imbalances were already adopted last year and are being implemented intensively. It pointed to the balancing of public finance, the stabilisation of the banking system and company restructuring, among other things.
Already visible are the effects of pension reform and labour market reform, while the government is also announcing a rationalisation of healthcare and an improved business environment.
In the draft programme published on 1 April, the centrepiece is a 5% cut in the public sector wage bill, coupled with an overall streamlining of the public sector and changes to financing of municipalities designed to encourage municipalities to merge.
The document speaks at length about consolidation of the banking sector, which has been ongoing, as well as the the privatisation of NLB and NKBM banks, which has been planned since last year.
Likewise, the government promises to continue with privatisation, using the proceeds to pay down debt. It says the three biggest companies - NKBM, Telekom Slovenije and airport operator Aerodrom Ljubljana - are to be sold before the end of the year.
Privatisation will be coupled with corporate deleveraging and measures to attract foreign investors, including by shortening court proceedings involving commercial disputes.
Health reform, the subject of much debate recently, is not explicitly mentioned, though there is talk about measures to streamline the network of health providers and dam the rising health expenditure.
On the other hand, the document says a public debate will be launched about a new pension reform for the period after 2020, when the effects of the latest pension reform will start to wane.
Measures to tackle youth unemployment and boosting the active employment policy are highlighted as the principal efforts on the labour market, but a full-fledged reform of the labour market is not forecast.
Source: The Slovenia Times
