Mitterlehner Pushing Austrian Exports Offensive
There have been 1,400 new Austrian exporters since the inception of Go International initiative in April 2009.The figures were revealed by Dr Christoph Leitl and Reinhold Mitterlehnerfrom the Austrian Ministry of the Economy and the Austrian Federal Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ) at the opening of the 8th Austrian Export Day of the Austrian Foreign Trade Promotion Organization (AWO).Both WKÖ President Dr Leitl and Austrian Minister for the Economy Reinhold Mitterlehner emphasized the enormous importance of exports for the Austrian economy.Mitterlehner announced that the Go International offensive to internationalize Austrian trade will be extended to 31st March 2011. We will continue implementing the internationalizing offensive because it supports our companies targeting exports of innovative products in global economic growth regions, declared Mitterlehner.To initiate our export drive, we must engage the future markets with greater strength and achieve this through the export of High-Tech Products. The current Euro exchange rate offers support for this move.Leitl emphasized, Exports is the motor of Austrian Well-Being and following the crisis year 2009, has returned to full in working order and the exporting companies for 2010 and 2011 are once again confident. This was confirmed by the AWO statistics which reveal a 1st quarter increase of 3.9% over 2009 with a volume of 23.8 billion. For the current export year Leitl expects an export volume of around 100 billion (2009: 94.2 billion).Further goals of the Ministry of the Economy and Chamber of Commerce are: 2000 additional exporters; to raise the overseas share of the exports from 17% to 20% in the growth markets and especially a doubling of the volume to China within 5 years. Leitl commented on the success of the Go International initiative since April 2009, saying: “Uppermost is that we have almost reached our goal of 2,000 new Austrian exporters. In total, 11,000 participants have taken part at 470 Go International events. 75% of the participants have taken new internationalizing steps. And since 2008, the volume of Austrian enterprises benefiting from the World Bank has increased by 72.The tail wind of the current Euro exchange rate is facilitating trade to the markets outside of the Euro zone, which contributes about 45% of Austrian trade “For exporters the lower Euro-US$ exchange rate acts as a competitive edge in Austrias favour, stated Leitl, “through the inflated value of the Euro, Austria was until now too expensive, and now the Euro rate is reasonable and fair which assists our exporters.The hopeful markets for solid economic growth lie above all with China, India and Brazil as well as the region of CEE, Asia and South America. The aspiring economic sectors include energy, infrastructure, environmental technology, building and food as well as technological fields. The Austrian Export Day is the most important Export Fair in Austria and should show the domestic enterprises that they are not acting alone with foreign trading, but are supported closely with a comprehensive network of experienced services such as the AWO with its network of over 100 bases World wide.Austria with its comprehensive and professional foreign trade network lies among the leading nations of modern trading support globally and this generates jobs and stability within the Alpine Republic.