Recently, People's Daily correspondent Liu Zhihai went to Ljubljana, the capital of the Republic of Slovenia, to have an exclusive interview with Anton Rop, Prime Minister of Slovenia. During the interview, the Prime Minister stressed that Slovenia has always followed and will continue to firmly pursue the one-China policy, he highly praised China for its achievements gained in construction and expressed his specific wishes for developing Slovenia-China relationship.

Anton Rop said, "I was accorded a warm-hearted reception by the Chinese side during my China visit paid in the first half of last December, my China tour left a profound impression on me. I saw with my own eyes the many achievements China had made, which reflected the intelligence and wisdom of Chinese leaders and people. I am amazed at China's rapid development and am deeply inspired by its great achievements."

Anton Rop believes that as a country soon to become a EU member, Slovenia will have a broad prospect for developing cooperation with China. He said currently the relationship between Slovenia and China is very good. In regard to economic development, China is one of the most potential and competitive countries in the world. Slovenia sees China's development prospect as promising. After its entry into the EU on May 1 this year, Slovenia will pay attention to developing ties with China and will try what it can to develop cooperation with China in various fields. With respect to future economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, Slovenia hopes to strengthen mutual investment, increase its exports to China and to see more Chinese enterprises come to invest in Slovenia. To this end, Slovenia suggests that China make better use of Koper, a geographically favorably located Slovenian port, so that the port will become a transit land for Chinese commodities exported to Eastern, Central and Western Europe. In addition, Slovenia and China have great potential for cooperation in the field of science and technology.

The Prime Minister points out that in the process of its entry into the EU, Slovenia pays special attention to developing its own economy and constantly raising its people's living standards. What's especially important is that Slovenia always adheres to one clearly-set goal, i.e. "It gets closer to the EU in the best, most effective and most successful form". Slovenia institutes privatization with Slovenian characteristics, the ownership of privatized enterprises belongs mainly to Slovenian citizens.

Among the 10 candidates soon to access the EU, Slovenia's preparatory work for joining the EU was best done which, in some aspects, was even better than that done by such EU members as Greece and Portugal. That was clearly pointed out recently by European Commission which also expressed its appreciation of this, the PM said with a sense of pride.

Mr. Rop said that the Slovenian economy is an export-oriented economy. Slovenia's foreign trade accounts for 80 percent of its GDP, of which its trade volume with the EU makes up 60 percent of the country's total foreign trade volume. In the process of competing with the enterprises of some EU countries, Slovenia has seen the emergence of a batch of competitive enterprises in the chemical, pharmaceutical and auto industrial fields. Slovenia's inflationary rate was very high in the past, now the rate has fallen to 3.6 percent. Slovenia plans to reduce the inflationary rate to the EU required 2 percent in three years. In the future, Slovenian economic development speed is to reach and even surpass the average level of the EU.

The PM added that these achievements gained by Slovenia will help deepen its cooperation with China.

During the interview, the Slovenian PM talked glowingly of his good impression of China. He gladly told the correspondent, "I particularly like China's cooking culture. In recent years, I bring along my wife and three daughters almost every Saturday to go to a Chinese restaurant in the capital to sample Chinese food. The vinegar-pepper soup made in the Chinese restaurant has a unique taste, I drink a bowl of it each time." He indicated that he is greatly honored to have the opportunity to be interviewed by the People's Daily correspondent. He wishes People's Daily readers good health and success in their career.

By People's Daily Online