World Champion Austria Upper Austria
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.
T
© Land OÖ/Lisa Schaffner
he 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
Upper Austria’s Regional Minister for Economic Affairs Markus Achleitner
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-
