Bad mood

More than every second company is thinking about leaving

More than every second Austrian company has thought about relocating at least once (symbolic image).

(Bild: stock.adobe.com/amnaj - stock.adobe.com)

More than one in two Austrian companies has already considered leaving the country. The reasons for this are the high tax and duty burden (57 percent), labor shortages (41 percent), high energy prices (34 percent) and what is perceived as too much bureaucracy (30 percent).

39 percent would relocate part of their business, 17 percent would relocate the entire business. This is one of the findings of the infrastructure report among domestic managers. More and more businesspeople doubt that Austria is the right location for them. Less than one in three people (29 percent) still consider Austria to be competitive. Five years ago, this figure was six out of ten respondents.

Plummeting in the competitive ranking
A comparison with other countries proves the managers right. Austria has actually fallen from 16th to 26th place (out of 67 countries) in the international competitiveness ranking of the Lausanne business school IMD.

In the competition for investors, the EU countries are now competing with much more dynamic economic areas such as the BRICS countries. Decisive factors include tax incentives, legal and planning security and infrastructure, said study author David Ungar-Klein from the Future Business Austria (FBA) initiative.

What consequences emigration would have
If companies with production were to move away from Austria, this would have far-reaching consequences for the security of supply, said Ungar-Klein. In the area of pharmaceutical supply, for example, around 80 percent of the active ingredients needed in Europe already come from third countries, primarily from China and India.

As infrastructure is considered to play a key role in competitiveness, the report recommends the expansion of digital infrastructures, such as the nationwide expansion of broadband and 5G infrastructure.