Between 11 and 12 May 2022, Development Center of the Heart of Slovenia organized an international study visit within the TRINNO project with the aim of presenting Slovenian good practices. During the visit of the Irish partner and stakeholders, Slovenian partner presented small value incentives through vouchers for small and medium-sized enterprises, exchanged experiences, practices and knowledge in the field of vouchers for digitization and present KATAPULT business accelerator, an example of excellent good practice in promoting and accelerating entrepreneurship in Slovenia.
On the first day of the study visit, we visited the Slovenian Enterprise Fund - SEF, which together with the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology presented in detail the purpose, objectives, scheme of operation and implementation of small value incentives through vouchers. The introductory speech, numerous experiences and the work of SPS were presented by SEF director, mag. Maja Tomanič Vidovič, the voucher scheme was presented by Viktorija Potnik (SEF), and Ministry of Economic Development and Technology was represented by Marlen Skarlovnik, Head of the Entrepreneurship Department, and Miša Osterc. The Irish partner and its stakeholders were impressed by fast-handling system, application process for and awarding of small value incentives through vouchers. The fact that the Slovenian voucher scheme already covers 14 different topics also stands out.
On the way to the Heart of Slovenia area, the whole delegation also stopped at KATAPULT, business accelerator and innovative environment for like-minded people, which offers support to companies at all stages of growth. The traversed path of the KATAPULT, founded by Dewesoft, their numerous projects and concrete levers of support for startups and start-up entrepreneurs were presented by mag. Olga Knez, project manager.
We concluded the second day of the study visit at the Digital Innovation Hub of Slovenia and exchanged experiences, practices and knowledge from the field of digitization vouchers. The exchange of good practices, some challenges and success stories were related to vouchers for raising digital competencies, digital marketing, preparation of digital strategies and cyber security.
During their visit to Slovenia, the Irish partner WestBIC and the stakeholders of the Local Enterprise Office Roscommon, Local Enterprise Office Leitrim, Local Enterprise Office Longford highlighted the excellently structured process of obtaining vouchers, from the announcement of the public call, a simplified system for the rapid submission of applications, and all the way to the payment of incentives for entrepreneurs. Variety of content offered by Slovenia within the voucher scheme, which show broad support for the growth, development, renovation or upgrade of micro, small or medium-sized enterprises in Slovenia, were not overlooked.
