In 2009, the industrial sector has suffered from the effects of the global economic crisis. Upper Austria’s most significant economic driver slowed down considerably. Now, the “locomotive” of the industrial sector needs to be brought back up to speed, while the potential of this highly developed business location needs to be exploited. Creating a strategic economic plan has proven to be an effective instrument. By the middle of this year, the current 600 million EUR subsidy programme “Innovative Upper Austria 2010” will end; a successor concept is already being developed. Upper Austria has a tightly woven network of competence centres, clusters, R&D institutions and impulse centres that are an important part of the business location’s attractiveness. The global economic crisis and the fact that many EU programmes are termed until 2013 are among the reasons to schedule the new economic plan “Innovate Upper Austria 2010plus” for this time period.

Economic Networks

It is mostly the large flagship businesses, the “Leading Competence Units”) (LCU), which trigger the greatest multiplier effects in the national economy thanks to their strong networks with other companies. Compared to the other provinces, Upper Austria has the greatest density of LCU’s. According to a study by the Austrian Institute for Industrial Research, before the onset of the international economic crisis, 43 Upper Austrian flagship businesses were – directly and indirectly - responsible for the production of up to 32.95 billion EUR in Austria’s economy. Approximately 20.77 billion EUR are allotted to Upper Austria’s economy. All in all, Upper Austria’s 43 LCU’s are creating approximately 160,000 jobs nationwide, while in Upper Austria they – directly and indirectly – employ approximately 86,000 people.

Increase in Research Activities

In the last few years, Upper Austria has been in the process of catching up with regards to increasing its R&D investments, with the goal of reaching the three-percent mark in 2010. Current projects, such as the new research headquarters of OMV’s subsidiary Borealis in Linz in which 50 million was invested, the new Greiner Bio-One research centre in the Mühlviertel region, and BRP Powertrain (BRP Rotax) with its headquarters and worldwide research centre for motor technologies in the town of Gunskirchen, show that the businesses are heavily investing in Research & Development. As an important stimulus, the province of Upper Austria has put together a 45 million EUR research package for the period until 2013. Out of this, 20 million EUR will be invested in the expansion and maintenance of Upper Austria’s strength areas in basic research, while 24 million EUR will (in cooperation with the Austrian Research Promotion Agency) be distributed in the form of loan cost subsidies, bonuses for co-operations, start-ups and ecological efforts, and backing of interest rates for loans. In addition, the province of Upper Austria will make up to 50 million EUR available for grants to research projects. The last million of the 45 million EUR research package will be used as basic funding for the “International Incubator Hagenberg” initiative: An international incubator will be set up at the Hagenberg Software Park, which is meant to attract domestic and international entrepreneurs who specialize in the development and application of IT technologies. Concretely, the initiative aims for the settlement of ten new start-up businesses at the Hagenberg Software Park. Raiffeisen Landesbank OÖ, the Upper Austrian arm of Raiffeisen bank, will provide three million EUR in venture capital to these ten high-tech start-ups.

Successful Co-operations

Inter-communal business settlements (INKOBA‘s) are gaining importance in Upper Austria. Thanks to the cooperation between multiple municipalities, approximately 100 business areas were developed in the last few years. “Many small and medium-sized structures were created, but only few large ones,” recapitulates Viktor Sigl, Provincial Councillor for Economic Affairs, “therefore we are planning at least five large business parks in Upper Austria. A dynamic business location like Upper Austria needs several business parks with a size of at least 25 to 30 hectares,” Sigl describes his plans. The first project in line to be developed is the new Machland Perg Business Park with a potential of up to 100 hectares. Upper Austria’s location and innovation agency TMG (Oberösterreichische Technologie- und Marketinggesellschaft mbH) is responsible for the development and management of INKOBA’s, as well as for the large network of 21 active impulse centres, which are being operated as technology and innovation centres as well as science parks. [ IN ]