The Austrian Business Agency makes Austria an enticing location for international businesses, skilled workers and film companies.
The objective is simple: The Austrian Business Agency (ABA) convinces international corporations interested in Austria as a business location of the country’s many advantages. In all phases of the start-up process, the ABA provides advice and assistance, and helps to master the bureaucratic process. This way, hundreds of jobs are created every year. International professionals who want to work in Austria also find support at the ABA. Proactively, the Austrian Business Agency recruits IT specialists, electrical engineers and scientists, to name just a few. The “Film in Austria” section is intended to promote Austria as a film location. ABA Managing Director René Tritscher explains the path to success.
What can the ABA do for entrepreneurs?
René Tritscher: Within our business unit ‘Invest in Austria’, responsible for business settlements, we advise all international companies that are looking for a location in Austria or want to set up a company. We provide information about the advantages of the location and answer all questions about setting up a company: What is the right legal form for my company? Which business license is necessary, which subsidies can I apply for and where? As a first point of contact, we offer a good overview of how the relevant industry is structured in Austria and advise on everything companies need for a successful business start. For detailed questions such as funding in the research sector, we consult with the FFG (Austrian Research Promotion Agency / Österreichische Forschungsförderungs GmbH) or with the AWS (Austria Wirtschaftsservice Gesellschaft, the promotional bank of the Austrian federal government) when it comes to guarantees. Our claim is that we are the first point of contact and the one-stop shop for all questions regarding international settlements. At the end of the day, someone who wants to start a business in Austria does not have to turn to countless different offices but gets an all-round service at the ABA. When it comes to details, we put you in touch with professionals who can help.
Do you accompany companies on their way to Austria?
Tritscher: We do go into depth. For example, with the trade license, which is something specific to Austria that international companies do not know in this form. We also clarify with the competent authorities and the regional economic chambers which trade wording is needed. So, this is not just theoretical advice, but we show specifically what needs to be done. We take the companies by the hand, but we don’t take care of the official channels or submit applications. That would exceed our capacities.
The focus is also on long-term advice?
Tritscher: We are there in all phases of the business foundation. Our objective is to bind the companies to us in the long term. When international companies have settled in Austria, they often come back to us. One example is Boehringer Ingelheim, which was looking for a second location in addition to Vienna. Here we were involved together with the Lower Austrian Settlement Agency, and now a new biopharmaceutical production plant with 800 new jobs is being built in Lower Austria. So, we also take care of expansion projects.
How do you sell Austria as a business location?
Tritscher: As a tourist country, Austria is already very attractive and world-famous for its places, cities and countryside. What hardly anyone knows is that Austria is also an industrial country. Tourism accounts for about 15 percent of GDP, but industrial production contributes about 30 percent. Austria is also a research country; with the research premium, it has one of the most attractive research subsidies in the world. As far as research expenditure is concerned, we are among the leaders in Europe and worldwide. We have one of the best health care systems in the world and an excellent quality of life, and the beautiful countryside is an additional criterion.
Is the quality of life really a decisive location advantage?
Tritscher: The existing environment is important. The cooperation of educational institutions, such as universities and universities of applied sciences, with companies is hardly as intensive and practice-oriented worldwide as it is in Austria. The beautiful landscape and the quality of life are therefore important, since people sometimes come to Austria with the companies. It is very important to managers and employees that they live and work in a beautiful country worth living in. This factor should not be forgotten when deciding on a location.
How do you attract skilled workers to the country with ‘Work in Austria’?
Tritscher: The idea was born three years ago, because the worldwide competition for the best brains is just as intense as the competition for the best companies. That’s why we set up the portal workinaustria.com, where all information about the location and about living and working in Austria can be found. In this way, we specifically address international skilled staff and Austrian companies that are looking for international employees.
Which skilled workers are we talking about here?
Tritscher: When we proactively go into target markets, we address, for example, IT specialists, electrical engineers, mechatronics engineers and scientists for the life science sector. There is a great shortage of skilled staff in these areas in Austria.
How does the first contact with potential companies and skilled workers come about?
Tritscher: We divide our markets into ABC areas, with A being the most important group. According to this categorisation, country budgets are allocated and invested in the various sales opportunities. Social media and digitisation are becoming increasingly important. Especially during the pandemic, we were able to extremely increase the share of settlements that resulted from social media campaigns. In terms of acquisition, we rely primarily on trade fairs and information events. We also organise events with the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs, to which we invite company representatives. A lot comes of the mix of different communication channels and measures. In addition, there are network partners who bring us together with the right contacts.
What does your support look like in concrete terms?
Tritscher: If a skilled worker wants to come to Austria and needs a residence permit or a visa, we provide support. If an international film is being shot, we also take care of the crew’s residence permit as part of our third field of activity ‘Film in Austria’. We operate a job exchange on workinaustria.com. When it comes to applying for [the work permit] Red-White-Red Card, we support both companies and employees. Last year, we carried out about 500 consultations regarding this. There is a very high probability of success here if the skilled workers come to us before applying. We then accompany them throughout the entire process. We have already set up a digital guide, the Immigration Guide, where a number of things can be clarified in a self-check process. This service is interesting both for large companies that recruit a lot of staff abroad and for start-ups that do not have the resources to handle such procedures themselves. All our services are free of charge, by the way.
There are always problems with the recognition of education from abroad. Can the ABA help here?
Tritscher: In the current government programme there is a lot on the issue of recognising professional qualifications in order to achieve improvements from a legal point of view. I think we are on the right track here. The enforcement of the authorities in Austria should become even more uniform. We are in intensive dialogue with all authorities – from the job market service AMS to the district, provincial and federal levels and the embassies in the individual countries of origin. We also do a reality check to see whether an application has a chance of success.
Has it become more difficult to get companies and staff to Austria due to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine?
Tritscher: The work we have to do has definitely increased. The pandemic made it more difficult in that we had to do everything virtually. This works well enough in active acquisitions for the first contact. However, it is difficult to approach companies or professionals only virtually. In the first year of the pandemic, the number of international companies settling dropped by up to 40 percent worldwide, but it was not as dramatic in Austria.
What is the ABA’s track record?
Tritscher: In the previous year, we had 364 settlements, of which more than 20 percent are projects that bring high added value to Austria. This can be a high number of newly created jobs, a high investment sum, important research and development work or a promising foundation such as a start-up with high growth opportunities. Boosting business settlements is a sales business. Our experts, who are structured geographically, filter out realistic projects from a large number of initial enquiries. Last year we had about 650 very concrete enquiries with great interest in our business location. This resulted in 364 settlements, which is a success rate of more than 50 percent. This represents the second-best result in the almost 40 years of the ABA’s history, both in terms of the number of projects, investment volume and employment effects. For example, we were able to increase the share of settlements from the United States.
How does the ABA finance itself? Are there kickbacks from companies?
Tritscher: The ABA is structured as a limited company. We are owned 100 percent by the Federal Ministry for Digitisation and Business Location (BMDW); our funding comes from its budget. There is a basic budget for the individual business areas Invest, Work and Film in Austria. In addition, there are special projects, such as the campaign ‘Research Centre Austria’, in which we actively promote Austria as a research location abroad and are provided with special budgets. We do not charge any fees or cost-sharing, neither from companies nor from professionals who settle in Austria. We also make sure that the ABA does not compete with companies from the private sector. That would be counterproductive.