INVESTMENTS 38 JUNE 2016 © Pixabay, obs/ZESTRON/Wack Group research and development (R&D) in Austria constitute more than half of the corporate sector’s R&D expenditures, which is an extremely high share by international standards. Only Ireland (71%), Belgium (66%), and Israel (65%) surpass Austria in this regard. Big countries like France (27%) and Germany (26%) but also Finland (14%) rank far behind Austria. HAVE WE OVERCOME THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS? R&D activities of foreign companies had been a substantial driver for the domestic R&D quota since 1995. This momentum slowed down due to the economic crisis in 2008/09. R&D investments of foreign-controlled companies had been increasing consistently slower than those of domestic companies since 2009. But this trend has clearly been reversed since 2011: Foreign multinational companies have invested substantially more into research and development in Austria again. Foreign companies increased their R&D investments in Austria from 1.6 bn. to more than 3.4 bn. euros between 2004 and 2013. But due to the crisis, the increase of R&D investments of foreign companies was signifi cantly lower from 2007 to 2009 (+2.4%), compared to the years before 2007. Investments grew from 2009 to 2011 (+7.7%), but growth rates only reached pre-crisis levels again between 2011 and 2013 (+20.5%). “The development of the past years shows that Austria still holds its position as an attractive research location among its international competitors,” says Bernhard Dachs. NON-EUROPEAN COMPANIES ARE INTERESTED IN CONDUCTING R&D IN AUSTRIA German and Swiss companies are still the most important foreign drivers of R&D in Austria. Their share amounts to 47% (Germany) and 11.7% (Switzerland) of all foreign R&D investments. But also non-European companies have established a strong R&D presence in Austria, led by US and Canadian companies with shares of 15.4% (USA) and 8.7% (Canada). A new investment group are companies from emerging markets. For example, Chinese companies spent 86 million euros on R&D in Austria in 2013. The industry’s level of productivity in Austria is traditionally high. Austria’s industry generated above-average growth in productivity over the past years. One of the deciding factors for this trend was the country’s highly motivated and qualifi ed workforce. EXAMPLES OF COMPANIES, WHICH DECIDED TO COME TO AUSTRIA: • The worldwide leading Japanese manufacturer of winding machines established its European headquarters Nittoku Europe as well as its production facility in Carinthia (St. Veit an der Glan). According to Nittoku, the main reason for this decision is the establishment of a regional headquarters as a solid foundation for the company’s European business. Nittoku plans to further strengthen its local R&D activities in 2016. • MIZUHO BANK, the third-largest Japanese bank, established its regional headquarters for Eastern Europe in Vienna in 2015. • The Germany-based medical technology company piur imaging has been developing and researching 3D ultrasound diagnostics in Vienna since 2015. • ROBO, a start-up company from Eastern Europe, develops the new Robo Wunderkind building blocks, which can be assembled into basic robots and programmed by children from 5 years onwards.
NEW BUSINESS - EXPORT TODAY 1/2016
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