Dear members,
Let me first thank you for your support and trust in AmCham Slovenia. Our board of Governors dedicated last year to looking forward. We set up a new strategy, put even more emphasis on the values and I am thrilled to present our new look for the first time. As always, the focus is on you – on our members, which is why you were asked to name the value that you most associate with the AmCham business community. You emphasized optimism – we are aware that along with perseverance, optimism is very much needed in order to follow the "inspiring positive change" principle.
We are certainly one of the most active business communities and we will have an opportunity to review our activities a bit later. I would firstly like to emphasize a few projects, which I am particularly proud of.
The source of our optimism are certainly our AmCham Young Professionals. Each year, including in the current – 7th generation, we have more than 120 young colleagues involved in the program, which has become a way of thinking and networking. Young professionals are the ones who present us with new challenges; they have independently organized themselves into a group called "Snow Ball", with the goal to help shape Slovenia as a country of opportunities and optimism. And they have our full support in this endeavor.
Last December’s economic-development delegation to the US, which we organized together with our ICT members companies, was an important launch of the "Slovenia, a green reference country in digital Europe" initiative, led by the Slovenian Deputy Prime Minister Koprivnikar, who was, together with our Prime Minister Miro Cerar, also a member of the delegation to the US.
Young generations were also the proposers of the staff exchange between public administration and the private sector. On the basis of this idea, we developed the "Partership for Change" program, which is a close collaboration between businesses and government departments. It is about building trust, looking for the best solutions and creating joint proposals through dialogue. In the upcoming, third round, our important objective will be to implement these solutions. The staff exchange certainly represents a new quality.
We believe that sharing best practices and getting to know each other is very important, therefore I am glad that the "Best of the Best" program is bringing new skills and creative ideas into our business community.
I truly believe that being a part of our business community is exceptional, as we are enriching our common space as well as each other. We have developed numerous partnerships, one of the most valuable of which is certainly our partnership with the US Embassy. Therefore I would like to invite the US Ambassador to Slovenia, H.E. Brent Hartley, to greet us.