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Geographical and regional characteristics
As a Central European state Slovenia has borders with Italy, Austria, Croatia and Hungary and stretches across the Alps, the Dinaric Alps and the Pannonian Plain to the Mediterranean.
Slovenias coastline is 47 km long. There are more than 26.000 km of rivers and streams and some 7.500 fresh-water springs.
Approximately half of the country's territory of about 20.000 sqkm is covered by forests – therefore Slovenia is the third most forested country in Europe. About eight per cent of the Slovenian countryside is protected by legisla-tion (natural parks).
Slovenia boasts about 7,000 registered karst caves, 15,000 animal species and 3,200 plant species.
Economy and Trade
Slovenia is a small open economy with a GDP per capita of EUR 12,273 (USD 13,849) in 2003. It is therefore one of the most developed new member states of the European Union. According to a forecast by the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW) the GPD of Slovenia will exceed 90 per cent of the EU-average by 2015.
Slovenia's economy is highly dependent on international trade. The balance of foreign trade of the GDP is one of the highest in the region.
In the early 1990s Slovenia, faced with the loss of the Yugoslavian market, oriented trade towards the EU and associated countries. Trade with these countries now accounts for over two thirds of Slovenia's trade.
The product composition of merchandise trade, still domi-nated by semi-finished and intermediate manufacturing goods, is shifting gradually. The shares of textile-, clothing-Â and steel industries in merchandise exports are declining slightly, while those of automotive products, electronics and pharmaceuticals are increasing. In the recent years the structure of Slovenian commodity exports has shifted in favour of products that use technology and human ressources most intensively. |
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![biograd[1]02](../assets/images/biograd_1_02.jpg "biograd[1]02")
