The article is composed of two parts. The first is based on theoretical geographical-developmental factors of balanced competitiveness of cities (regions) in conditions of globalization and the emphasized role of a creative milieu as fundamental development impulses. The second one explores the importance of Ljubljana and its role in the system of innovative urban centers in contrast to the metropolis agglomerations in the wider surroundings employing empirical findings. We support its position using the geographical dimensions of innovative dynamics as the fundamental development generator for the entire national urban system and evaluate its developmental research potential as well as investment, economic, and population capacities from the viewpoint of the opportunities offered by its central position and function as a capital city.

The paper presents some geographical characteristics of investment development in the first years of the 21 st century, covering at least fragmentarily the gap in Slovenia's economic geography. In the process we tried to draw attention to the sporadic character and rapid developmental changes in economic geographical events within production systems.In the paper we focus on the geographical distribution of investments and their impacts on regional development. Special attention is devoted to studying the spatial distribution of investment activities relative to factors such as the amount, development, branch structure, and distribution of the amount of investment that indicate the diversification and development of the economy.

The com plex of the cur rently mostly pro fi tab le Slo ve nian com pany enga ged in the pro duc tion and mar ke ting of phar ma ceu ti cal pro ducts ope ra ting in more than 70 mar kets in the world, is the spa tial expres sion of crea ti vity. Kom pleks tre nut no naj do bi~ ko no snej {e slo ven ske dru` be, ki se ukvar ja s proi zvod njo in tr`e njem far ma cevt skih proi zvo dov ter poslu je na vek ot 70 tr gih sve ta, je pro stor ski izraz ustvar jal no sti. ABSTRACT: The article analyzes the spatial dispersion of creative occupations in various municipalities in Slovenia. The main conclusion, which can be drawn from the article, is the very uneven distribution of creative occupations, which are most dominant in national employment centres and suburban areas of city regions. Creative social groups undoubtedly represent a strong impact on the regional development, which is seen through GDP per capita. The areas with higher levels of creative occupations are more innovative and their social and economic development more dynamic. The analyses also show a positive correlation between the share of employed people in creative occupations and innovativeness based on the average number of patents per capita.

In this paper, the authors divide Slovenia's countryside on the basis of selected indicators combined in eight different content complexes, which they call »partial syntheses«: Natural Limitation Factors, Land and Agricultural Systems, Property Conditions, Population Characteristics, Characteristics of Economic Efficiency, Personal Infrastructure, Frontier Status, and Agricultural Burdening of the Environment. The partial syntheses are the basis of an integral synthesis with five distinct levels of countryside development. In the second part of the paper, the importance of the division of the countryside is presented from the viewpoint of providing diverse forms of assistance to ensure its coordinated development, as well as from the viewpoint of monitoring indicators of deviations from the desired impacts of regional development to which the term »regional disparities« refers.

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