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World Champion Austria Burgenland
Burgenland – land of subsidies in an excellent geographic location Attractive and business-friendly funding programmes combined with the proximity to economic centres.
Interview with Burgenland’s Minister of Economy World Champion Austria spoke to Leonhard Schneemann, Minister of Economy at the Burgenland Provincial Government, about the latest developments and future plans. Burgenland as a business location – what is the current focus? What is the long-term focus? Right now, the focus of the business location Burgenland is on securing livelihoods. Securing livelihoods is important as the Covid crisis has meant that many businesses in Burgenland have fallen into difficulty due to the massive decline in orders, which of course resulted in a decline in turnover. Our biggest priority is to counter
this with appropriate measures and maintain the structure of the economy. At the start of the crisis we put together a Covid support package. On the one hand, this included hardship funds with non-repayable subsidies and on the other hand, the Province assumed liabilities for bridging loans, which are processed by house banks. And the Province of Burgenland is bearing the interests for businesses in the tourism sector that have secured financing via the Austrian Hotel and Tourism Bank (ÖHT). In the medium-term, the aim is to put stimulatory measures in place in order to revive the economy, to get it back to the level it was before the crisis and thus create a basis for long-term growth. These measures are currently being compiled. In addition, we are backing a more intensive business settlement programme. To support this, the Province is offering to help companies in their settlement combined with an attractive funding package.
Photo: Landesmedienserviec Burgenland
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s part of the Vienna region, the province of Burgenland is surrounded by business opportunities more so than most of the other provinces. It has the perfect location situated between East and West. The mountains and the Pannonia. The major cities of Vienna, Bratislava, Graz, Ljubljana and Budapest, plus the new growth markets in the East and a domestic market of almost four million consumers on the doorstep. Burgenland is able to act as a hub due to its close proximity to Slovakia and Hungary as well as Slovenia. Within just 100 kilometres there are three international airports: Vienna-Schwechat, Bratislava and Graz-Thalerhof. The majority of business locations are accessible via major road networks (A3, A4 and A6 in North Burgenland as well as the S31 in Middle Burgenland and the A2 in Southern Burgenland) and some of the locations have rail connections. Four business parks make Burgenland an attractive place to settle for national and international companies and aim to make the road to success easier for those who locate there. All six technology centres in Burgenland are directly connected to the Burgenland Data Highway via fibre optic cable networks.
Leonhard Schneemann, Minister of Economy, at the Burgenland Provincial Government
