Upper Austria – top business location in Central Europe

Upper Austria is a top business location in Central Europe

Dynamic, innovative, highly skilled – in order to keep these attributes, the province has launched the strategy #upperVISION2030.

Upper Austria is one of the most dynamic business locations in the heart of Europe and an Austrian leader in export, technology and industries. When it comes to the innovation ratio, the province’s companies are among Europe’s best. And innovations in particular are the motor for a successful restart after this year’s Covid crisis. “There is going to be a post-corona reshuffle in the competition among business locations and Upper Austria can score with its innovative capacity,” says Werner Pamminger, Managing Director of Business Upper Austria, the Upper Austrian business agency. The province has launched the business and research strategy #upperVISION2030 to make Upper Austria a Europe-wide economic high-flyer by 2030. In order to reach this target in the face of stiff competition among business locations, the regional government is going to invest one billion euros in economic and research subsidies over the next ten years. The strategy will focus on four central pillars: c Digital transformation c Efficient and sustainable industry and production sectors c Systems and technologies for people c Connected and efficient mobility

Business location Upper Austria

Werner Pamminger from Business Upper Austria outlines the province’s strong points:

Where does Upper Austria stand out as a business location? Why should a company settle in Upper Austria?

Upper Austria offers highly-skilled staff, a first-rate infrastructure and an excellent innovation and research network with currently eleven technology centres, an education network with four universities, four universities of applied sciences with 68 courses, two colleges of education and two big centres for adult education. Upper Austria benefits from its central geographic location, border-

Contact Business Upper Austria

Business Upper Austria is the province’s port of call in all things concerning Upper Austria as a business location. It is a driver of innovation and point of contact for all business from Austria and abroad, offering tailor-made solutions for their investment and innovation projects. Business Upper Austria plays an active role in shaping the business and research policies in Upper Austria.

Business Upper Austria OÖ Wirtschaftsagentur www.biz-up.at

Photo: Egbert Padhuis/Go-Install

With a recycling ratio of 75 to 80 percent on average for its material components, AMAG is basically the world champion in recycling and a specialist in rolling mills.

Education and research in Upper Austria

Universitäten

c Johannes Kepler University Linz c University of Art and Design Linz c Catholic Theological Private University Linz c Anton Bruckner Private University Linz

Colleges of applied science

FH Oberösterreich University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria c Campus Linz – health and social sciences c Campus Hagenberg – information, communication, media c Campus Wels – technology, life sciences c Campus Steyr – business management

Postgraduate courses

c Limak Austrian Business School GmbH

Job market and economic structure 2019

c Total number of jobs c Apprentices c Jobseekers (annual average)1 c Unemployment rate1 c Members at the Economic Chamber

675,417 23,294 34,052 4.8% 98,886 c Business formations2 5,440 c Gross value added in mln euros (2018) 58,841 c Gross regional product in mln euros (2018) 65,850 c Share in the Austrian GDP (2018) 17.1% c Gross regional product per capita in euros (2018) 44,600 c Foreign trade in mln euros (Q1+Q2) c Imports 15,199 c Exports 19,971 c Tourism overnight stays (x 1,000) 8,544 c Patent issuances nationally (2018) 250

1 national calculation, 2 preliminary number Source: Statistics Austria, Association of Social Security Institu tions, Austrian Economic Chamber, Province of Upper Austria, AMS

ing Germany and the Czech Republic. Our extensive traffic infrastructure of roads, railways and waterways make our province also an outstanding business location in terms of logistics.

So, is Upper Austria as a business location in high demand or rather an insider’s tip? The success stories of Business Upper Austria show that our province is indeed in high demand when it comes to business settlements. In 2019, we implemented investment projects to a volume of 620 million euros, creating 2,795 new jobs. Our department for investment and business location management has worked on 160 new settlement and investment projects. Almost 50 thereof do not come from Upper Austria. This goes to show that Upper Austria takes up a top position by regional comparison.

This year we already added 55 new settlement and investment projects, which will create in turn another 1,062 jobs.

Upper Austria used to be called a “country of clusters” – does that term still apply? Definitely. The close ties within our province continue to be an essential factor of success for businesses from Upper Austria. Upper Austria is a trailblazer when it comes to European cluster policy. More than 2,000 partners are members of the Upper Austrian clusters. There is the automotive cluster, the medical technology cluster, the plastics cluster, the furniture and timber construction cluster, the mechatronics cluster, the Cleantech cluster, the IT cluster and the foodstuff cluster.

Digitisation is still a buzzword of our times. What is the Upper Austrian business agency doing in this field? In order to prepare Upper Austria for the digital transformation as

a business and research location, the regional government already launched guidelines for digitisation in 2016. This initiative is coordinated by Business Upper Austria, which oversees the guidelines’ implementation. Staff’s digital know-how is an essential factor for success Photo: BusinessUpperAustria in digital transformation. Business Upper Austria offers individual qualification and consultation services such as “digital competence & IT security”, which is subsidised “Upper Austria is a trailblazer in European cluster by the unemployment agency AMS and the Department of policy. More than 2,000 partners are members of Economy at the regional govthe Upper Austrian clusters.” ernment. We support businesses, staff and jobseekers Werner Pamminger Managing Director of Business Upper Austria on their way into the digital age with numerous actions such as trainings, consultations and an exchange of experiences with other companies. 100 Upper Austrian businesses already benefit from this tailor-made training programme. As of 1 January 2020, there are also specialist subsidies for investments into IT security for hardware, software and staff training. Another action of ours is the initiative #IT_rocks. In order to meet the demand in skilled works in information technology we need to arouse interest for IT jobs in children and youths from an early age. To achieve this, we launched this initiative with the Department of Economy at the regional government. It will show pupils the various education and career opportunities in the IT sector. What does Upper Austria do when it comes to research and development? Our goal as a business, industry and research location is a holistic one. We want to press ahead with the development of products, services and technologies and eventually have more founding, researching, technology-oriented and exporting business in Upper Austria.

Joining forces for #upperVISION2030 to make Upper Austria a high flyer: President of the Upper Austrian Chamber of Labour Johann Kalliauer; Regional Minister of Economy and Research Markus Achleitner; Governor Thomas Stelzer; President of the Upper Austrian Economic Chamber Doris Hummer and Joachim Haindl-Grutsch, Managing Director of the Federation of Upper Austrian Industries

The decisive move is to turn research results quickly into economic applications. Therefore, our business and research strategy moves along the innovation chain of research/science – economy – higher education.

What does Upper Austria do to reach climate targets? Upper Austria has drawn up the action plans “efficient and sustainable industry & production” as well as “connected and efficient mobility”.

Together with all the topics surrounding these areas, Upper Austria is on the right path to being a liveable and sustainably acting industrial region in which climate protection takes up a central role. Our businesses are implementing trendsetting cooperation projects within the various clusters. ◆

A trendsetting cooperation project: CTC Cleantech Cluster and NEFI

The model region New Energy for Industry (NEFI) aims to develop and demonstrate solutions for intelligent, safe and affordable energy systems for the future with innovative technologies from Austria.

The NEFI innovation association is a consortium of the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, the University of Leoben, the Upper Austrian Energy Saving Association and the business location agency Business Upper Austria, combing their extensive experience in the fields of energy research and the implementation of projects. Together, these organisations want to show the way to fully decarbonise the production sector and energy-intensive industries.

NEFI is a “Model Region Energy”, subsidised by the Climate and Energy Fund.

New Energy for Industry CTC Cleantech-Cluster www.nefi.at www.cleantech-cluster.at