IRAK DIE WIEGE DER ZIVILISATION

L‘AUTRICHE ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
sive „go international“ um 2,5 Millionen Euro können
sie dank neuer Förderungen gezielt alternative
Auslandsmärkte bearbeiten und somit neue Exportchancen
erschließen. Weiters bieten wir über die
Förderbank Austria Wirtschaftsservice spezielle
Überbrückungsgarantien für Betriebsmittelkredite
an. Damit können zum Beispiel neue Kundenaufträge
vorfinanziert werden.
Nach den verheerenden Anschlägen in Paris sprachen Sie
davon, dass die Regierung an einer Sicherheitsoffensive
arbeite. Können Sie dazu schon Genaueres sagen?
Wir haben im Ministerrat vereinbart, dass wir in den
nächsten Jahren zusätzliche Mittel von bis zu
290 Millionen Euro in die Sicherheit investieren. Zudem
haben wir auch schon einige legistische Maßnahmen
gesetzt, etwa das Verbot des Werbens mit
Terrorsymbolen und Nachschärfungen beim Staatsbürgerschaftsgesetz.
Darüber hinaus müssen wir
Integration und Dialog einen hohen Stellenwert einräumen,
um die Herausforderungen durch Terror
und Extremismus gesamtgesellschaftlich bewältigen
zu können. Wichtige Säulen des Pakets sind daher
Prävention und Bewusstseinsbildung.
It is hugely important for Austria’s future as an economic location
that world trade should continue to be liberalised. What
form do you think such liberalisation should take?
If we want to overcome the present economic crisis
in a way that is sustainable and long-term, then we’re
going to need to keep stimulating world trade. Removing
unnecessary barriers to trade – long and
drawn-out customs processes, for example – creates
growth and jobs, and helps companies and consumers
alike. The alternative to that would cause a return
to national protectionism, which would be precisely
the wrong strategy. A protectionist approach
doesn’t solve problems; it merely exacerbates them.
Greater internationalisation, on the other hand, does
work, and eventually everybody involved will benefit.
This is something we’re also seeing in the research
fi e l d .
What is the importance for Austria as an economic location of
the controversial free trade agreement between the EU and the
USA, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
(TTIP)?
The USA is Austria’s third-largest trading partner,
after Germany and Italy. That is why a country like
Reinhold Mitterlehner auf Marktsondierungsreise in China.
Reinhold Mitterlehner on a fact-finding tour in China.
ours, with a strongly export-led economy, can do
particularly well out of a well-crafted trade agreement.
At the same time, the quality of that agreement
has to be absolutely right. If TTIP is going to succeed,
it’s crucial that all the partners to the agreement
have the discretion to define levels of protection, and
that national standards are guaranteed and respected.
This is particularly applicable to food, the environment,
and health and consumer protection. Levels of
transparency also need to be strengthened further,
even though we have made a certain amount of progress
in this field. We will have to achieve greater
openness in future rounds of negotiations, if we want
to retain our citizens’ confidence.
How is the Austrian internationalisation offensive going? What
are the projects of the future?
The measures and services provided in “go international”
have already proven their worth. Primarily,
they are there to support small and medium-sized
enterprises in beginning to export, open up future
markets and market their innovations. It also uses
other instruments, such as helping them attend important
industry meetings, conferences and trade
fairs, and participate in research collaborations, and
companies are being provided with legal advice, risk
analyses and market surveys. Exports have slowed
down in recent years due to the challenging inter-
FOTOS: XYXXYXYXY
PHOTOS: BMWFW/GEORGES SCHNEIDER, BMWFW/JAKOB GLASER
Reinhold Mitterlehner: „Ein Rückfall in nationalen Protektionismus wäre jetzt genau die falsche Strategie.“
Reinhold Mitterlehner: “A return to national protectionism would be precisely the wrong strategy at a time like this.”
national environment, of course, but exporters are
still amongst the most important pillars of the
Austrian economy, and are the basis of growth and
many jobs in the country.
What do you think are the export markets of the future?
Because of the current low levels of growth in Europe,
we are going to have to push forward with the diversification
of exports introduced so successfully, in
order to open up new markets and spread the risk.
We always need to be going wherever the highest levels
of growth are, without neglecting our traditional
markets, like Germany, by doing so. I see huge potential
in China, for example, a country I had the
pleasure of visiting last year as part of a large economic
delegation, where domestic know-how and
high-value products and services are meeting
sharply-increasing levels of demand. We are aiming,
therefore, to double overall trading volume with
China by 2020. The current crisis between Russia
and Ukraine makes it more necessary than ever
before for us to open up new markets, so that we can
diversify export flows.
EU sanctions against Russia have also had consequences for
Austria’s economy. What measures has the Ministry of Economy
considered using to counter this?
It is always important that we remain a reliable partner
to business, of course, and never more so than
during such difficult periods as these. That’s why
we’re trying to support companies affected by the
Russia-Ukraine crisis more intensively. By increasing
our “go international” export offensive by 2.5 mil lion
Euros, we’ve enabled those companies to target specific
foreign markets with the help of new support
funds, and create new export opportunities by doing
so. We are also offering special bridging guarantees
on operating loans through our development bank,
the Austria Wirtschaftsservice. This will allow companies
to finance new orders in advance.
In the wake of the terrible attacks in Paris, you said the government
was working on a security offensive. Can you be more
specific as to what exactly this might mean?
We agreed in the Council of Ministers that we would
invest additional funds of up to 290 million Euros in
security. We have also put in place a number of logistical
measures, such as prohibiting the advertising
of terror symbols, and tightening up the Nationality
Act. Alongside measures such as these, though, we
are going to need to give a high priority to integration
and dialogue, if we want to overcome the challenges
posed by terror and extremism throughout society
as a whole. That is why preventative measures
and consciousness building will also be important
components of the package.
„Gerade die
Ukraine-Krise
macht es notwendig,
neue
Märkte zu
erschließen.“
„The crisis in the
Ukraine makes it
more than necessary
to open up
new markets.“
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Cercle Diplomatique 1/2015
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