With the “Business Park 2020” concept, the Lower Austrian provincial government is setting the tune for the future strategic orientation of its business parks. Until the end of 2010, a total of approximately 18.5 million EUR is set to be invested in infrastructure measures to be set in the 16 ecoplus business parks. The province wants to focus on soft skills such as childcare institutions and traffic management systems, as well as important structural improvements such as district heat, improved internet connections and thermal upgrades of industrial and office buildings.

Expansion of the Business Park Concept

While the improvement of existing locations is a major part of the programme, the development of new settlement areas is being fostered as well. One such area is set to emerge north-east of Vienna in the Deutsch Wagram-Gänserndorf region, at an important interface between the automotive clusters of the Bratislava-Vienna region. In cooperation with the regional administrations of Bratislava and Trnava, new bridges over the March River are planned to provide an optimal connection of the location to the industrial zones in Slovakia. The provincial governors of Lower Austria and the Bratislava region, Pröll and Bajan, were both in favour of this. There are also concrete plans for another business park in the Mostviertel region: Just before the New Year, land options of 30 hectares were secured in the district of Scheibbs for the construction of the ecoplus Business Park Wolfpassing. Besides the province’s business agency, players from the private sector also play a significant role in Lower Austria’s strong business park culture. Leading the way is the pioneer among private park operators, LKW Walter Group, who for over 20 years has been successfully managing and continuously expanding the Walter Business Park south of Vienna. The location’s attractiveness with its excellent connection to the motorway network, the airport and Vienna’s city centre was recently improved even more thanks to the additional motorway connector Industriezentrum Niederösterreich-Süd.

New Flagship Businesses in Lower Austria

Despite the tense economic situation, 73 new business settlement/expansion projects were handled in 2009, which secured/created approximately 1,200 jobs. All in all, approximately 490 companies with over 15,400 employees to date have settled at ecoplus’ eight own business parks (ecoplus holds shares in the other eight parks). One of the highlights of 2009 was the settlement of the Kwizda Group of Companies in Leopoldsdorf near Vienna, where Austria’s most modern pharma logistics centre is emerging on an area of 15,000 square metres. Another large-scale project is being developed in the Waldviertel region, where Fiber Cable Technologie GmbH/NBG is building a new production hall at the Access Industrial Park Gmünd. Petra Bohuslav, Provincial Councillor for Economic Affairs: “Despite the challenging economic times, we were able to secure jobs and create new jobs with various projects in the individual regions.”

International Research Centres in Lower Austria

This should also be achieved at the Technology and Research Centre Wiener Neustadt, where a technology-oriented economic environment was created on the premises of Civitas Nova. This 132 hectare large area is home to the Eco Nova business park, the Technology and Research Centre Wiener Neustadt (TFZ), Austria’s first and largest University of Applied Sciences and the Regional Innovation Centre (RIZ). The province is currently investing 16 million EUR in the construction of additional research laboratories that will be available to companies in the medical research field surrounding the Medaustron cancer research and therapy centre. At the four technopoles of Wiener Neustadt, Tulln, Krems and Wieselburg, 55 million EUR will be invested in the fields of medical research, bio technology and bio energy by 2010. At the same time, the existing regional clusters in Lower Austria should be strengthened and the network between businesses and research institutions expanded. Special cluster management teams will assist companies in their search for partners and ideas for cooperation and support projects from the beginning to their successful end. For this purpose, Lower Austria has already created six cluster initiatives: the Automotive Cluster Vienna Region for all areas of the automotive industry; the Wellbeing Cluster for businesses in the healthcare and recreation industry; the Green Building Cluster for all environmentally-friendly and energy-saving construction-related activities; the Plastics Cluster for materials technology; the Logistics Cluster for the transportation sector; and the Food Cluster for the fabrication of products typical for the region. Bohuslav: “Together with the technopole programmes, the clusters form a strong backbone for the positive development of the economy of Lower Austria and the entire Central European region.”

Completion of Central Europe’s

largest Construction Site

The large-scale infrastructure project “Ypsilon” PPP Eastern Region Package 1 was completed and opened to traffic in early 2010. This was the first Austrian PPP project that was carried out as part of a major transport route network. “Ypsilon” includes the southern part of the A5 Northern Motorway and Vienna’s northern bypass expressways of S1 east and west as well as S2. Having the northern bypass as part of the regional ring road deconcentrates traffic flows and brings relief for the urban area,” as Alois Schedl, Chairman of the Board at Asfinag, points out. He is also convinced that this excellent connection contributes to strengthening the economic region. “By extending the A5 motorway to the national border, ASFINAG continues to make large investments in the coming years,” says Schedl.

Economic Hub of St. Pölten

With its good infrastructure (motorway, western railway, Danube and close to an international airport) and the attractive locations of its industrial parks, the provincial capital of St. Pölten positions itself as a traffic hub for the central Lower Austrian region and an economic hub for Europe. All in all, St. Pölten has 522 hectares of land available that are dedicated for business settlements. In the southern part of St. Pölten, the city is working together with the public real estate management company BIG (Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft) to develop the business park “NOE CENTRAL”, which is primarily suitable for industrial and logistics companies. The total long-term potential includes an area of approximately 80 hectares and is already well developed today with connections to rail and road. The economic service centre ecopoint acts as the central point of contact for entrepreneurs and investors, providing assistance in the location-finding and settlement process as well as support in all matters related to financing, funding and contact with public authorities. [ IN ]