Until 2005 he was also the president of the Liberal Democratic Party (Liberalna Demokracija Slovenije – LDS), the legal successor of the Slovenian Association of Socialist Youth.

From 1985 to 1992 he was Assistant Director of the Slovenian Institute for Macroeconomic Analysis and Development, where he also headed working groups for the projects of fiscal informatics and investments in economic infrastructure and tackled Slovenia's developmental problems.

In his capacity as assistant director of the Institute and advisor to the government he started working in the field of privatisation and legislation drafting as early as 1992.

Following elections to the National Assembly at the end of 2000 he was appointed Minister of Finance.

He was member of National Assembly of Slovenia until August 2010, when he became vice-president of the European Investment Bank.