IRAK DIE WIEGE DER ZIVILISATION

LE MONDE VIENNA ECONOMIC FORUM
From the Adriatic to the Black Sea
Text: Petra Stix
INFO
1 2
5 7
VEF Events in 2015
27th-28th May 2015:
“Vienna Economic
Talks – Tirana Meeting.
Brainstorming Regional”,
in Tirana, Albania
3 4
18th June 2015:
“Vienna Economic
Talks – Meet Macedonia in
Vienna”, Studio 44 of the
Austrian Lotteries,
Rennweg 44, 1030 Vienna
The Vienna Economic Forum has played a hugely influential
role in establishing Vienna as an economic hub for the
region of Southeastern Europe.
1 Left to right: Austrian
Chancellor Werner
Faymann, Elena Kirtcheva
and Erhard Busek.
2 Austrian President Heinz
Fischer with the Patrons
Committee.
3 Elena Kirtcheva.
4 Former Austrian
Chancellor Wolfgang
Schüssel.
5 „Family picture“ at the
Business and Investment
Forum, Albania, organised
by WKO and VEF.
6 Former President of the
Vienna Economic
Chamber, Brigitte Jank
(left) and Margarete
Kriz-Zwittkowits,
Honorary President,
Austrian Trade
Association.
7 Regional Governor of
Lower Austria, Erwin Pröll.
The Vienna Economic Forum (VEF) was
ini tially founded in April 2004, based on an
idea by Elena Kirtcheva, Ambassador of the
Republic of Bulgaria in Vienna at the time. A few
years previously, as Bulgarian Ambassador to Switzerland,
she had become acquainted with the World
Economic Forum in Davos, an experience which
inspired her to found an organisation of a similar nature
focussed on the needs of Southeastern Europe
and the Balkan countries, and based in Vienna.
“Vienna immediately struck me as the perfect location,”
Kirtcheva says. “Not only was there a real demand
for economic exchange in the region, but you
could sense the generally optimistic mood in the city,
a feeling of wanting to instigate change.” The aim of
the VEF is to promote economic cooperation between
the countries and territories of the region,
which is defined as stretching from the Adriatic to
the Black Sea, from a location in Vienna.
It was decided that the VEF’s partner countries
should be Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Bulgaria, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia,
Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine, Kosovo – and of course
Austria.
Along with Kirtcheva, who initially came up with
the idea, the Forum’s founding members included
some of Austria’s most notable entrepreneurs and industrialists,
such as Josef Taus, the first President of
the Vienna Economic Forum, Erhard Busek, Rudolf
Gruber, Burkhard Hofer, Walter Rothensteiner,
Herbert Stepic, Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer, Veit Sorger,
Andreas Treichl, Karl Fink, Hanno Soravia,
Christoph Leitl and Elisabeth Gürtler-Sacher. Therefore,
the three fundamental components in the
Forum’s success – the right location, the right time
and the right people – were all very much in place.
Former Austrian Vice-Chancellor Erhard Busek,
who was also a Special Coordinator of the Stability
Pact for Southeastern Europe, is the current President
of the Vienna Economic Forum. The Patrons
Committee of the VEF is made up of the Prime
Ministers of individual member states, together with
the Austrian Chancellor. The ambassadors of the
countries in the region also participate in the work of
the Forum as honorary members.
Asked why she thinks the Forum has enjoyed the
success it has done, Kirtcheva says: “The Vienna Economic
Forum has accomplished a lot over the past
eleven years, and Vienna’s importance as an economic
hub for the region of Southeastern Europe has
grown enormously at the same time. The achievements
of our members, Austrian and Southeastern
PHOTOS: VEF
6
European companies and international firms, in helping
the region of Southeastern Europe from Vienna,
really speak for themselves.”
The Vienna Economic Forum’s main conferences
are held in the Austrian capital every year in November.
The conferences are attended by hundreds of
decision-makers from business and industry, who
come together to exchange ideas and to network. In
addition to this, the VEF organises a number of
external conferences each year in the capital cities of
its partner countries, under the patronage of the
prime minister in question.
Another initiative, the “Vienna Economic Talks”,
provides a platform for discussing specific issues or
economic sectors within a smaller framework. In
2008, the “Vienna Economic Talks – Pleven Meeting”
was organised to discuss the issues of water
supply, waste management and infrastructure.
The 11th Forum was held in Vienna in November
2014. 500 participants from 44 countries attended
the event, including Austrian President Heinz
Fischer, Chancellor Werner Faymann, and the
President of the European Bank for Reconstruction
and Development, Suma Chakrabarti.
Elena Kirtcheva is also particularly proud of the
fact that the VEF was awarded NGO status in 2011,
and that it now enjoys Special Advisor status at the
Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
One particularly popular event in the Vienna
Economic Forum calendar is its annual garden party
every summer. “The unique atmosphere of this event
proves once again just how much the people of this
region, from the Adriatic to the Black Sea, have in
common with one another,” Kirtcheva says.
The Vienna Economic Forum is continuously
growing and evolving, a trend reflected in the ongoing
internationalisation of its Executive Board.
One Belgian, two Bulgarian and one German company
are now represented on the Board, as well as the
Turkish Investment Agency. “We are firmly convinced
that the presence on the Board of the VEF of
representatives of companies from all member countries
heightens economic collaboration across the
region as a whole,” Kirtcheva says.
Playing such a key role in the region of Southeastern
Europe for almost eleven years, and continuing
to establish Vienna’s place as an economic hub, is a
hugely positive feeling, of course, and Kirtcheva is
optimistic about the future. “Advancing the region’s
economic development and witnessing so many success
stories – initially those of the Austrians, and as
time has gone by, those companies we have had the
chance to accompany in partner countries as well –
provides enormous motivation and impetus.”
9th June 2015:
14th Traditional Garden
Party of the Vienna
Economic Forum, Haus
Wittgenstein, Parkgasse
18, 1030 Vienna
23rd November 2015:
12th Vienna Economic
Forum – Vienna Dialogue
2015, Palais Niederösterreich,
Vienna
INFO:
www.vienna-economicforum.com
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