Upper Austria – A province in comeback mode

Doris Hummer, head of the Upper Austrian Economic Chamber, talks about the growth dynamic and the above-average economic growth in the province.

The province of Upper Austria managed the Covid crisis relatively well and the current economic upswing has come faster than was expected. “The data show that Upper Austria’s economy is moving from crisis mode to comeback mode – we would not have expected this to happen so quickly,” Regional Minister for Economic Affairs Markus Achleitner said at the start of summer.

According to forecasts, the 2022 gross regional product of Upper Austria will be again at pre-crisis levels and above, at just under 70 billion euros. By comparison, the figure for 2019 was 68.38 billion euros and 63.66 billion euros for 2020. Achleitner is also pleased with the developments on the employment market, but the shortage of skilled workers remains an important issue.

In terms of economic growth, following the slump caused by the Covid crisis, it is predicted there will be around 4 percent growth in 2021 and around 5 percent growth in 2022. This is above average when compared to Austria as a whole. Upper Austria was able to score points in the pandemic by the fact that many companies did not bury their heads in the sand but instead placed an even stronger focus on research and development. This is reflected in the figures for the federal government’s investment premiums. With almost 60,000 applications, just under one in four applications was submitted by a company from Upper Austria. These companies will receive 1.5 billion euros of subsidies from the federal government, triggering investments of up to 16 billion euros. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that over 90 percent of the applications came from small and medium-sized companies.

The Regional Minister for Economic Affairs is also very pleased about projects which encourage the settlement of new businesses: Despite the pandemic, the Upper Austrian location agency Business Upper Austria has supervised more than 500 business relocation and expansion projects. 141 of those have been successfully completed, which is more than in the record year of 2019. And in terms of business start-ups, Upper Austria saw a strong increase in the number of start-ups – 8 percent more than in 2019: exactly 6,009 companies were founded in Upper Austria in 2020.

Doris Hummer, head of the Upper Austrian Economic Chamber, knows more about “her” business location.

How is Upper Austria getting on as a business location? Over the past 18 months Upper Austria has been able to impressively demonstrate how important it is to work together con-

Doris Hummer, President of the Upper Austrian Economic Chamber: “We will support and encourage our members to seize the opportunities of digitisation and innovation.”

structively under these difficult circumstances with all location partners to positively shape the future. Fortunately, we can see that the economy has recovered significantly since the summer and the comeback is progressing very well. According to forecasts by Bank Austria Unicredit Research, Upper Austria’s economy will grow by 4.1 percent in 2021 and no other Austrian province is showing such a high growth momentum this year. Also, with regards to the employment market, Upper Austria has come through the crisis relatively well. In the meantime, more people in our province are in employment than before.

What lessons can be learned from the Covid crisis? Digitisation is an indispensable basis for new services, business models and distribution channels. And Upper Austria’s businesses have great opportunities through innovation and new technologies to be economically successful and to create new jobs. One of the biggest challenges for companies is the equity base. The Covid pandemic has shown that the trade and craft sector, retail and the tourism and leisure industries – differing depending on the size and sector – still have a lot of catching up to do. To increase their resilience to crises, companies need a better equity base. Using our business location master plan, we have already focused in recent years on the burning issues facing our companies in order to take their concerns into account. This master plan has been evaluated this year and rolled out once again. One of our most important concerns is how to increase the availability of skilled workers, for example through educational measures and, in particular, by making apprenticeships even more attractive. Furthermore, we will support and encourage our members to seize the opportunities of digitisation and innovation.

Exports play a key role in the success of our economy. We therefore want to position Upper Austria more strongly as an export province and support our companies as best we can in the development of new markets, particularly in the fields of environmental and energy technology as well as developing attractive export destinations. Another permanent undertaking is to continue to work on easing the burden on businesses by reducing taxes and levies, and cutting red tape.

We will also focus now on sustainability and greening. As an Economic Chamber we are committed to the ecological transformation and don’t just see this as a necessity but also as an opportunity. However, this process must be socially and location-wise compatible, and our companies must be able to plan and have the opportunity to invest securely. ◆