Slovenia Bulletin

Neither Ljubljana nor Maribor attractive to business

A report published in the Austrian weekly Format showed that Ljubljana and Maribor rank near the bottom among new EU cities and soon-to-be EU cities attractive to foreign businesses. Of the 28 cities covered, Ljubljana ranked 20th and Maribor 23rd. The report was conducted by the Capgemini consulting firm.

Cities were ranked according to scores in five categories: quality and cost of labor, quality of infrastructure, access to international suppliers, and living standards for foreigners.

Maribor mayor Boris Sovič told Finance that his city ranked well in the labor and international suppliers categories, and he believed it did well with regard to expatriates’ living standards even tough Maribor does not have an international primary school.

Finance had difficulties finding someone to speak on record from the Ljubljana city administration, and a representative of the city council said simply that they were not familiar with the report. Ljubljana scored fourth place with regard to quality of infrastructure (behind Budapest, Zagreb and Prague) and fifth in living standards (behind Budapest, Warsaw, Prague and Sofija) [Finance / 17.10.04 / Ljubljana and Maribor Not Attractive to Foreign Business and Ljubljana in Maribor za tujce neprivlačna].