Ingrid Brocková with the President of the Slovak-Austrian Chamber of Commerce: “Austria is not only our neighbour but also a strategic economic partner”

'Austria is our third largest foreign investor and our seventh most important trade partner; it is time to focus on an added value and development of cooperation in prospective sectors of environmental technologies, the digitalization of industry and information and communication technologies,' emphasized the State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic, Ingrid Brocková, during her discussion with the President of the Slovak-Austrian Chamber of Commerce, Mária Berithová, today (6 May 2021).

Austria is the sixth largest market for Slovak goods and services and the eleventh from the point of view of imports. Despite the pandemic, the mutual trade exchange turnover reached 7 billion EUR last year. Owing to approximately 2 thousand companies, Austria is the third largest investor in Slovakia in engineering, the electrotechnical industry, banking, construction as well as the IT business.

Ingrid Brocková: 'Austria is an inspiration for us in higher dual education, solving the lack of a qualified labor force, encouraging the development of intelligent industry and supporting science, research and innovation. I look forward to the cooperation in the form of projects of economic diplomacy as well as through the formats of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic, which are being prepared, such as From Regions to the World and the Export Forum.'

The Slovak act on vocational education was inspired by the Austrian model of practical education. Austria's investments in science, research and innovations represent approximately 12.8 billion EUR a year, which represents up to 3.2% of the gross domestic product. Half of these investments comes from the private sector. The best practice instrument of modern technology trends in industry are competence centers, which are also a source of applied research and development for industry.

The Slovak-Austrian Chamber of Commerce in Slovakia has been active since 1996, and currently it has 210 members. The Chamber regularly organizes various kinds of events for the business public; these offer the possibility to identify a suitable business partner, as well as providing marketing analyses, and legal and tax counselling. The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic also cooperates with the Chamber in solving practical problems of entrepreneurs such as cross-border home office, working time and sending employees of Slovak companies abroad.