Dr Andrej Bajuk was born on 18 October 1943 in Ljubljana. His family left Slovenia at the beginning of May 1945 and spent nearly three years in refugee camps in Lower and Upper Austria before going to Argentina, where they settled in Mendoza. Dr Bajuk grew up, studied and started a family in Mendoza.

Dr Bajuk received his first degree in economics in Mendoza from the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. In a two-year international study programme organised by the University of Chicago he received his first master's degree, receiving the second jointly with his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. He returned to Mendoza, where he taught as a professor at the university. He soon left for Washington, working for the World Bank for a year. He then moved to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), where he stayed for a number of years. He held a range of positions at the IDB, from economist responsible for analysing social projects to adviser to the executive vice-president. During his last six years in Washington he was in charge of the office of the presidency of the bank and a member of the board of executive directors. From September 1994 he was the IDB representative for Europe and Israel in Paris, where he worked until 2000 as head of the IDB Special Office in Europe.

On 15 April 2000 Dr Andrej Bajuk was elected vice-president of the SLS/SKD Slovene People’s Party and on 3 May 2000, Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia.

On 1 August 2000 he became the leader of the New Slovenia–Christian People’s Party. On 15 October 2000, he was elected deputy to the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia and became head of the New Slovenia–Christian People’s Party deputies group.

Dr Bajuk speaks English, French and Spanish.