World Champion Austria Vorarlberg
Vorarlberg – export champion and great innovator Austria’s westernmost province has a high industrial ratio and is among Europe’s top 20 business locations.
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oday, Vorarlberg ranks as one of the strongest economic regions in Europe. Its extremely high economic strength is based on a rate of industrialisation above average combined with competitive trade, numerous innovative craft businesses and an effective tourist industry (e.g. Lech am Arlberg as the number one Alpine destination). Vorarlberg’s annual export volume of 43,000 euros per employed person places the region far above such strong export countries as Switzerland or Germany, according to the ABA - Invest in Austria, the national investment promotion agency of the Austrian Business Agency (ABA). This high export ratio is the result of the regional economy’s clear focus on new products, processes and services, which makes it possible to gain market shares even in saturated markets. Such power in innovation is also exemplified by patent statistics: Vorarlberg regularly ranks among Europe’s top five regions in terms of the number of patent applications filed with the European Patent Office per million inhabitants.
Business location Vorarlberg – what is the current focus and what is the focus in the long run? Despite of the crisis, we expect that the economy will remain focused on specialisations and everyone will concentrate on what they do best. In our case, the highly automated production of goods and their sale on international markets. Alongside the highest industry ratio, Vorarlberg also has the highest export ratio in Austria. That is the current focus in Vorarlberg and will remain so in the future. Of course, it is true that the production industry is undergoing drastic change and becoming increasingly digitised. Here I would like to mention Industrie 4.0, the digitisation and integration of whole value-added chains, or the increasingly higher automation. I see this as a big opportunity. Digitisation can bring us a benefit in securing the production location as well as its added value. This is also our outlook in the long run. Alongside digital business models, of which there are increasing numbers, we make sure that the existing industries remain competitive. For this, you need research, inJimmy Heinzl, Managing Director of Wirtschafts-Standort Vorarlberg GmbH Photo: Studio Wälder
Vorarlberg in numbers “Vorarlberg is a successful business location and counts as one of the Top 20 locations in Europe. One of the reasons for this is the high grade of industrialisation in the region. Industry is responsible for around 30
percent of the regional added value,” says Jimmy Heinzl, Managing Director of the business agency Wirtschafts-Standort Vorarlberg GmbH. This makes us curious so we asked a few questions …
