2025 POLICY ROADMAP

Slovenia continues to maintain a strong export position: export market shares increased in 2023 and remained high in 2024, indicating that Slovenian firms — including younger, more dynamic ones — can still position themselves in foreign markets despite weaker global demand. However, many small and medium-sized firms, where most new entrepreneurs operate, lag behind in advanced digital tools that increasingly enable international activity (e-commerce, platform access, data-driven marketing). New government instruments introduced in 2024–2025 — such as co-financing for participation at international fairs, joint promotional activities and vouchers supporting internationalization — have expanded formal support channels for SMEs and start-ups entering foreign markets. These contribute to improving access, although capability gaps still limit more sophisticated forms of internationalization among many new entrepreneurs.

Several tax, regulatory and support-programme changes over the past twelve months have significantly influenced the entrepreneurial environment in Slovenia, including stricter rules regarding revenue thresholds and deductible expenses. In 2025, the Slovene Enterprise Fund (SPS) introduced new programmes which increase increased the availability of grants, guarantees, subsidised loans and equity instruments for start-ups and SMEs.

2025 Framework Conditions Review

National experts assess the framework conditions for their own economy, and these assessments are then combined to derive the National Entrepreneurial Context Index (NECI), which reflects the overall quality of an entrepreneurial environment. Slovenia’s NECI score for 2025 is 4.1, remaining stable compared to 2024. Slovenia ranks 41st out of 53 GEM economies globally, maintaining the same position as the previous year. Its NECI score and ranking reflect persistent challenges in education, policy, and cultural support for entrepreneurship.

Of thirteen Framework Conditions, national experts rated  three of Slovenia’s as sufficient or better (i.e. score ≥ 5.0), up from two in 2024. These are Physical Infrastructure (5.8), Ease of Entry: Market Dynamics (5.7) and Commercial and Professional Infrastructure (5.2). This leaves the remaining ten conditions rated as insufficient, with particularly low scores for Entrepreneurial Education at School (2.5), Social and Cultural Norms (3.2) and for Government Policy: Support and Relevance (3.4). While most scores showed only minor year-on-year changes, there were notable improvements in Ease of Entry: Market Dynamics (from 5.2 to 5.7), and Commercial and Professional Infrastructure (from 4.8 to 5.2). The largest falls were for Social and Cultural Norms (from 3.8 to 3.2), and for Entrepreneurial Education at School (from 2.9 to 2.5). The decline for Social and Cultural Norms pushed its global rank down to next to last (52nd of 53 GEM economies). It was joined in the bottom ten by Entrepreneurial Education Post-school (49th), and Government Policy: Taxes and Bureaucracy (45th).

New and growing businesses’ prioritisation of sustainability is rated by national experts at 5.7, down from 6.6 in 2024. However entrepreneurs’ awareness of the need to develop and implement AI solutions scores highly at 6.7, up from 6.2 in 2024, reflecting a strengthening orientation toward digital transformation and technological capability.

Slovenia’s entrepreneurial environment in 2025 shows mixed progress, with a stable NECI score and modest improvements in infrastructure and market dynamics. However, most framework conditions remain below sufficiency, and cultural and policy support continue to lag. Professional infrastructure and AI awareness are improving, but stronger institutional and educational support will be key to future growth.

2025 Entrepreneurial Activity Review

The proportion of adults in Slovenia reporting that their household income has fallen in the current year has been decreasing since this question was introduced by GEM in the pandemic: from nearly one in two in 2020 to one in five in 2023, and just one in seven in 2025.

Entrepreneurial awareness is reasonable and confidence is high, with more than one in two adults knowing someone who has started a business recently, while two in three adults seeing themselves as having the skills or experience to start a business of their own. One in two adults see good opportunities to start a business locally, although two in five of these would not start that business for fear it might fail. Just under one in six intend to start a business in the next three years, slightly down on the previous year. 

Since 2020 the percentage of adults actually starting or running a new business in Slovenia has been fairly stable, in the range 6% to 9%, and is towards the middle of this range in 2025 (7.1%). Established business ownership is a bit over 9%. Around three men are starting a new business for every two women doing the same. Just over one in two new entrepreneurs agree with the motivations “to build great wealth or very high income”, “to earn a living because jobs are scarce” or “to make a difference in the world”. One in two expect to use more digital technology to sell their product in the next six months, while a relatively high one in four anticipate employing more than another five people in the next five years. The number of new entrepreneurs with revenue from outside Slovenia is little changed in 2025, at just under two in five. Just over one in three new entrepreneurs claim to have acted to reduce environmental impacts or maximise social impacts in the past twelve months, although seven in ten report prioritising such impacts over profitability or growth.