8 minute read
Heaven, Vienna mine. I’m in the spell of your charms divine“
by medianet
With or without pandemic: Vienna flies high with business settlements and local founders.
The City of Vienna and the Austrian Business Agency recorded a solid number of new settlements from international companies: Despite the Covid pandemic and all its restrictions, 218 companies from abroad settled in Austria’s capital. “The investments made by foreign businesses during the pandemic show that entrepreneurs believe in Vienna as a business location. In spite of the Covid pandemic we recorded the third-best year in settlements since 2012,” Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig says. Economic councillor Peter Hanke adds: “These 218 new settlements resulted in 263 million euros of investment, creating 1.718 new jobs.” 44 of these 218 companies come from Germany. For the first time ever, the United Kingdom was second with 16 new businesses. The increase in interest from British companies surely stems from the Brexit in late 2020, when Britain left the European Union. Italy ranks third with 14 businesses, followed by Switzerland, Slovakia and Russia. The United States comes in eighth as the first non-European country.
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Founding boom
But not only new business settlements are a cause for optimism; the economic recovery is mirrored by the number of new business establishments in Austria’s capital. The first half of 2021 saw 4.856 new businesses registered, which is 19 percent more than during the first Covid year 2020. This founding boom has been coming: “We already noticed last year that there is a huge interest in establishing a business in Vienna. Enquiries at the Business Establishment Service of the Vienna Economic Chamber rose by 2.600 in 2020 up to 57.800,” says Barbara Havel, CEO of Junge Wirtschaft Wien and representative of Vienna’s founders. Due to the pandemic many founders postponed their plans and are starting their businesses only now though, says Havel. The sectors business consultancy, IT, advertising and online retail saw the most new establishments in the first half of 2021 in Vienna.
“We want to help founders as well as we can as the economic situation is still highly volatile,” Havel says. “An entrepreneur needs support, particularly in the beginning, to master unpleasant stumbling blocks. There is a lot that founders need to pay attention to, to prepare and to plan – not only having an idea first, but deciding the legal form of the company, registering your business and dealing with legal and fiscal matters, which often confuse people particularly in the beginning.” The experts at the Vienna Economic Chamber give founders a hand – for free.
© Adrian Almasan
The Business Immigration Office deals with the needs of expats, helping international workers to settle in faster.
More services for international key workers
The City of Vienna cooperates closely with the Vienna Business Agency and the job market service AMS to establish a new service point for international skilled workers and scientists who want to move to Vienna with their families. The idea is to offer advice to expats and their particular needs at one single port of call – called the Business Immigration Office BIO. It bundles all settlement and immigration processes to speed up the move to Vienna.
“Vienna is a cosmopolitan place and skilled workers from abroad do not only strengthen our economy but also enrich our society. The new Business Immigration Office offers the best service available in order to process the settlement of skilled workers and key workers faster and with less red tape,” says Vice-Mayor and Councillor for Integration Christoph Wiederkehr. “This is not only a huge bureaucratic simplification for them but also for entrepreneurs, for research facilities and education centres.”
The new service point deals with legal matters and offers advice on various topics. In future, it will help international skilled workers, entrepreneurs, organisations, research facilities and education centres with questions specific to them. Furthermore, the Business Immigration Office will give points and starters on all of the City’s offers on integration. In 2019, the City processed more than 5,000 settlement applications from international skilled workers. By bundling all the individual procedures and creating synergies, these processes will be faster and less bureaucratic in future. Not only will new workers benefit from this streamlined process but also Vienna’s economy as a whole.
“Supporting the upswing”
“Vienna as a business location is appealing to international businesses but also for international skilled workers and managers. They often come with their partners and families and need a lot of help in the beginning. After one and a half years of Covid-induced stagnancy, we see more movement in international business. We can support this upswing with the new Business Immigration Office perfectly,” says Hanke. The service will be run by members of the City Department for Immigration and Citizenship MA 35 in cooperation with a multi-lingual team of experts from the Vienna Business Agency. They will be located at Zelinkagasse 9 in Vienna’s 1st district. ◆
ABA: Full steam ahead for Austria as a business location
For 40 years ABA has been the first port of call for international business settlements. As a location agency, it makes our country attractive for companies and skilled workers.
Establishing a company in Austria? Setting up a research campus? Finding highly skilled international experts? Or shooting a gripping feature film? The Austrian Business Agency (ABA), a subsidiary of the Federal Ministry for Digitalisation and the Business Location, takes care of all of these issues. The location agency celebrates its 40th birthday in 2022.
5,000 businesses settled
“Our strengths are our first-class service, our economic knowhow and our networking skills. All companies that contact us receive customised solutions and benefit from our large network,” explains ABA Managing Director René Tritscher. One focus is the promotion of Austria as a business, research and work location abroad. The 32 strong team of INVEST in AUSTRIA advises companies on settling and entering the market, informs about the location in all its facets and addresses potential investors abroad.
Facts & figures
Sector: International business settlements Finding skilled workers Film commission
Staff (2021):
45 Languages: 15 ABA is Austria’s business location agency. The subsidiary of the Federal Ministry for Digitalisation and the Business Location (BMDW) promotes Austria as a business and research location, an attractive labour market for skilled workers and a filming location for international movie productions.
Austrian Business Agency (ABA)
Opernring 3, 1010 Vienna investinaustria.at, workinaustria.at, locationaustria.at
© ABA
René Tritscher, ABA Managing Director
Since its founding in 1982, ABA has attracted more than 5,000 companies, created almost 70,000 jobs and attracted more than 12 billion euros of investment to the country. In 2021, a strategic reorientation took place towards even more quality and added value for the business location. The goal is to attract more companies in the future-oriented sectors of IT – specifically cybersecurity and autonomous driving – as well as life sciences. Austria is very well positioned in these areas and offers great potential for foreign companies. In return, they can bring investments and attractive jobs to the country.
International skilled workers and film productions
In addition to international business settlement, ABA has two other pillars: WORK in AUSTRIA and FILM in AUSTRIA. “With WORK in AUSTRIA, we primarily address domestic companies that are looking for highly qualified skilled workers beyond the
The CEE headquarters of Robert Bosch AG in Vienna - within the Bosch Group, Austria is an important development location for all types of drivetrains.
country’s borders. As a one-stop shop, we assist them with all issues regarding the employment of foreigners and with official procedures,” explains René Tritscher. Companies can advertise vacancies internationally via an online job exchange, and an online advisor for EU citizens or third-country nationals who would like to work as skilled workers in Austria as well as employers offer answers to questions about living and working in our country.
The FILM in AUSTRIA department acts as a national movie commission and supports international movie productions in their filming activities in Austria. Among the 500 movies shot were highlights such as James Bond, Mission Impossible and the Bollywood blockbuster Tiger Zinda Hai. “ABA brings international movie productions to the country: This creates jobs and strengthens tourism. We network local filmmakers with the international movie industry and in this way make Austria known abroad,” says Tritscher. The services on offer range from subsidies – around 83 million euros so far – to help with the search for locations and filming permits, the search for cooperation partners and networking with filmmakers. All ABA services are free of charge for companies.
40 years of commitment to Austria
ABA can look back on a unique success story: In 1982, it was founded by ÖIAG as ICD Austria to create jobs in rural and industrial problem areas. In 1995, it was renamed the Austrian Business Agency, and since 1996 the Republic of Austria has held 100 percent of the shares through the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
The then settlement agency, from 2007 onwards by the name ABA – Invest in Austria, benefitted from Austria’s location as a hub between East and West. The top companies and research institutions already located here also attracted companies from all over the world.
In 1997, the Location Austria department (today FILM in AUSTRIA) was created, and WORK in AUSTRIA was added in 2019. The renaming back to the Austrian Business Agency (ABA) in 2021 marked the transformation into a business location agency. Numerous awards underline the great commitment, such as the World Bank’s award as “World’s Best Business Location Agency”, among others. Since 2015, the ABA has also held the title of “family-friendly company”.
An international example of success
Over the past four decades, many international companies have benefited from ABA’s services. The German Robert Bosch AG appreciates Austria’s advantages as a location for innovation – from the research premium to the qualified workforce to the training at the Higher Technical Education Institutes (Höhere Technische Lehranstalten) and Institutes of Technologies (Technische Hochschulen). “This helps us to attract new projects to Austria or to expand existing ones,” explains sole director Helmut Weinwurm.
