AmCham Business Leaders Club met with His Excellency Seán O’ Regan, Ambassador of Ireland to the Republic of in Slovenia.

Ever since he came to Slovenia in October 2015, his primary mission was to extend and foster the trade between Slovenia and Ireland. The level of trade between the two is still low and there are many unexploited opportunities. The Ambassador aims to foster the economic cooperation between both countries by helping Irish companies with entering the Slovenian market, which could also be a starting point for the Balkan region. He sees opportunities and potential for further and deeper collaboration in the food sector, tourism, IT start-ups, etc.

The informal discussion also touched upon Brexit, which is bringing lots of challenges not only for Irish economy but also for their everyday life and functioning of the country in general, as United Kingdom is Irish 2nd export partner, after the U.S., and biggest importer of Irish export products.

Slovenia and Ireland are two very similar countries, due to their market size, educated workforce, infrastructure, etc. and this is why they can both learn a lot from each other. The participants of the meeting came to the conclusion that Slovenia could in particular improve its investment environment (taxation, flexibility of labor market, bureaucracy) in order to become more attractive for foreign direct investors.