ABA – Invest in Austria, the national investment promotion company operating under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy, presented record results for 2016. In cooperation with the regional investment promotion agencies, ABA provided professional assistance to 319 new international companies setting up business operations in Austria. This means ABA surpassed the threshold of 300 business location projects for the first time, and once again increased the number of companies by 7.4%. The total investment volume of these projects in Austria was up 42% to EUR 705.22 million (2015: EUR 496 million). The number of new jobs created as a consequence of these foreign investment projects increased slightly to 2,622 (2015: 2,613).
Strong interest from Germany, China and CEE/SEE markets
116 business location projects in 2016, comprising a 13% increase from the previous year, originated in Germany, the traditionally strongest investor nation. Accordingly, Germany was responsible for 36% of all ABA projects. Interest on the part of Chinese companies is also rising sharply. Twelve Chinese firms set up business operations in Austria in 2016 with the support of ABA, compared to seven in 2015. Some 70 companies, or one-fifth of all ABA investment projects, came from CEE/SEE countries. The top investor nations from this region were Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia and Russia.
Strong vote of confidence in Austria as a research location – Doubling of number of firms involved in R&D
More than 10% of the international companies supported by ABA in 2016 carry out research and development. “The number of companies with R&D-relevant business operations more than doubled to 35 in 2016 compared to the prior-year level of 16 firms. These companies invested about EUR 124 million in Austria in 2016 alone.
Booming startup scene: 18 new international startups
ABA also supports international startups in founding companies in Austria as part of the Land of Founders strategy pursued by the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy. In 2016, the number of startups locating in Austria doubled to 18.
Ranking of federal provinces: Vienna ahead of Salzburg, Carinthia and Upper Austria
The majority of all investment projects or a total of 155 companies once again decided to locate their businesses in the Austrian capital of Vienna (2015: 150). Salzburg was ranked second after Vienna with 31 foreign investment projects (2015: 25), followed by Carinthia with 27 companies (2015: 36) and Upper Austria with 23 (2015: 17). A total of 22 companies supported by ABA and the regional investment promotion agencies decided in favor of Tyrol (2015: 20), 21 firms selected Styria (2015: 16), whereas 20 located in Lower Austria (2015: 18), 11 in Vorarlberg (2015: 9) and 7 in Burgenland (2015: 5). Two of the companies have sites in several federal provinces.
Examples of companies located in Austria
Bekum Group: The Berlin-based machine producer Bekum transferred production, including machine assembly, purchasing, production planning and warehousing, to Traismauer in Lower Austria with the objective of bundling its extrusion blow-molding machines. It is investing EUR 5 million in expanding the Austrian plant, creating 40 new jobs. Up until now the factory in Traismauer only manufactured industrial blow molding machines, and starting now also smaller packaging machinery.
CETC
One of China’s largest high-tech companies is constructing its European headquarters in Graz within the context of its internationalization drive. There CETC is already cooperating with universities and local companies. The focus of its research in Graz will be on security technology and business intelligence. The state-owned firm CETC founded in 2002 employs a work force of about 150,000 people.
Amlogy
The startup Amlogy develops augmented reality and virtual reality applications for various areas such as education, marketing and gamification. For example, the Russian-Armenian founders have succeeded in bringing schoolbooks to life, for example with a learning app enabling virtual 3D depictions. This makes it easier and more effective for pupils to learn complicated subject matter. Amlogy was one of six finalists in the Austria‘s Next Top Startup competition.