Mirko Pak 31 Nekateri elementi povezovanja...
Austrian border, there are 47 border crossings, 16 of which are international. On the 102 km long Slovene-Hungarian border, there are 4 border crossings, 2 of which are international. On the 546 km long Slovene-Croatian border, there are 34 border crossings, 27 of which are international. The occurence of border crossings, of bigger ones in particular, strongly depends on the relief features, as well as the density of settling and the degree of contacts between Slovenia and the neighbouring countries and between the border areas on both sides.
The flows of employment across the border have only increased since the economy came under recession. In Austria, the greatest number among the employed that come from former Yugoslavia are the Slovenes. Slovenia, havin been the most developed republic in former Yugoslavia employed a lot of workers from othem federal republics. The result in the increased number of non-Slovene population, from 6% in 1971 to 12.2% in 1991. The percentage of Croats in Slovenia increased from 2.5% to 2.8% only.
An old process going on in the regions along the borders is across-the border supply flows, which is based on price differences and other things. While, on the Italian and Austrian sides, numerous smaller or bigger centers have developed on this basis, such as Trieste (Trst), Gorizia (Gorica), Udine (Videm), Tarvisio (Trbi'), Villach (Beljak), Klagenfurt (Celovec), Graz (Gradec), Leibnitz (Lipnica), Radkesburg (Radgona), Bleiburg (Pliberk), etc., this infrastructure is not so evident on the Slovene side, in spite of mass supply flow from Italy to Slovenia. Since it is often connected with tourist visits, in western Slovenia in particular, it offers to wider areas along the borders an additional economic contribution.
A special type of communication between neighbouring countries is going on among national minorities on both sides of a border.
Slovenia used to have the role of a gate leading to Yugoslavia; the fransport function did not decline so much when the northwest-southeast direction was closed, because the importance on the west-east direction increased, i.e. from Spain, south France, and especially Italy, towards Hungary and further on to the east. New border crossings on the Slovene-Hungarian border should also be mentioned in this connection, as well as the Karavanke tunnel, highway connection with the Phym highway, and transport directions towards Croatia. Thus, along with the ever more important Ljubljana transport node, the eastern one, i.e. Vienna-Zagreb- Budapest is also gaining ever greater importance.