The aim was to inform the Ministry of Finance about a recently adopted CEF legislative package, including Project bonds initiative. Discussion ensued. Even though the Government has not yet formally discussed the package, it seems that Slovenians are rather in favour of innovative financing (a recently supported project by the SID Bank, which insures risks of the nature and level for which financial institutions and private reinsurance market are not willing to cover or have limited capabilities to cover, seems to confirm this). The Commission offered to provide additional information if necessary.
Main issues highlighted by DG INFSO:
o National goals need to be in line with the Digital Agenda for Europe;
o Competitive investment environment market mechanisms and competitiveness among network operators and investors need to be maintained;
o Common investments should be facilitated and replication of broadband infrastructure should be avoided;
o Demand on digital literacy and access to internet should be fostered;
o Establishment of the EU Digital single market is one of the priority actions for Europe.
Main issues discussed by the Slovenian stakeholders:
o Deployment of broadband is highly capital intensive investment (between 0.5 to 1 bn €) – Slovenia is highly rural, a hybrid model will be required;
o It is necessary to establish a legislative framework that fosters private investors;
o In 2012 MHEST will revise the broadband strategy;
o APEK should tender the Digital dividend spectrum in 2012;
o Slovenia should exploit its development opportunities: strong national FTTH
coverage, advanced e-administration, e-health services, smart grids;
o Slovenia should be more ambitious than the DAE – coverage of 90% households with 100 Mb/s till 2020.
o Infrastructure competition should be avoided, what we need is service competition; this implies that functional locations that are commercially interesting should be open to all service providers;
o It is necessary to recognise the differences between urban and rural areas.
o Mobile networks should complement fixed networks.
o Companies should reinforce their cooperation with the academic sector. In the field of R&R various projects are implemented, however the results of these projects cannot be commercially used due the applicable contractual law this should be avoided in future.
o A need to use synergies between different sectors i.e. energy, health, etc. is crucial.
o Internet marketing potential in Slovenia is unused.
o The consumers would like to see the State to take a more active stance at striving to ensure the presence of global services and content providers on a small Slovenian market and to develop similar Slovenian versions of these services.