Global Business Beyond the Pandemic

ReFocus Austria is an ongoing campaign of the Austrian government to support the Austrian economy across the globe while the world emerges from the pandemic. The campaign was officially launched on September 7, 2021, in Vienna with the Federal Chancellor, Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, and the Vice President of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, Martha Schultz, in attendance.

ReFocus Austria is Austria’s signature global outreach program and a key pillar of the Austrian government’s plan to rebuild the economy as it emerges from the coronavirus crisis. It is carried out in cooperation with the Austrian Chamber of Commerce’s international offices, the Austrian National Tourist Office, and representatives of other federal ministries to open doors for Austrian companies abroad, and to secure and create jobs and investment in Austria itself. As part of the campaign, Austria will show itself to be a strong, stable, and innovative place to do business in the heart of Europe. This is made possible via a network of over 100 diplomatic representations that have been organizing a series of bespoke events all over the world with a view to promoting Austria as a great place to do business.

The campaign focuses on the core pillars upon which Austria’s economy will be built in the future: renewable energy, e-mobility, sustainability, digital transformation, infrastructure, urban technology, and tourism. All over the world, the “Made in Austria” label is synonymous with quality and reliability, as well as world-class design, engineering, and craftsmanship.

Explaining the rationale behind the campaign, Foreign Minister Schallenberg said: “We saw clearly that our response to these extraordinary times would require an extraordinary effort, a joint effort by every member of ‘Team Austria’, from the Chancellery to the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, the National Tourist Office, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and a host of other individuals and organizations.” Martha Schutz, Vice-President of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, stressed the link between diplomacy and support for Austrian businesses: “We are delighted that ReFocus Austria is up and running. We now have a joint international campaign that will use the tools of economic diplomacy, our overseas representations, and our trade bodies abroad to open up new opportunities for Austrian firms on international markets,“ she said.

Since the beginning of the campaign in September 2021, over 100 such events have been organized abroad at the time of this writing; a similar pace is expected for the remainder of 2022, explains Ulrike Ritzinger, Head of the Foreign Ministry’s Business Service. In the international arena, Austria is known for promoting a sustainable economy and global environmental protection, and many of the recent events have been focusing on the “Green Economy” and Austria’s contributions in the form of sustainable technology exports. This includes the presentation of the first electric-powered fire engine presented in Barcelona, Spain by Austrian company Rosenbauer, as well as the Nurek Dam, an earth-fill embankment dam on the Vakhsh River in Tajikistan, which is being modernized by Austrian company Andritz as a showcase project.

In the United States, several events within the scope of ReFocus Austria have been held and are scheduled for the first half of 2022. In September 2021, for example, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg met with representatives of Austrian and U.S. companies in New York City to discuss forward-looking business areas, as well as opportunities and challenges for Austrian companies in the U.S. market. In addition, European and American approaches to artificial intelligence and quantum computing were discussed. Specifically, while new technologies have to be adapted, the risks they might pose also have to be taken into consideration.

These new, digital realities, evident in all realms of technology, science, entertainment, and culture, were also recently discussed during Austria Night at this year’s SXSW conference which was held from March 11-15, 2022 in Austin, Texas. By means of a projection installation by the Austrian art collective OMAi, the city of the future was envisioned in a luminescent collaborative artwork. Guests were able to contribute with spontaneous drawings and animations of emerging technologies and futuristic scenarios and thus shed light on the human perspectives and expectations behind the buzz. As another special highlight, the audience also enjoyed two special music sets by the Austrian artists CID RIM and James Hersey.

As these examples illustrate, ReFocus Austria is an interdisciplinary effort that promotes Austrian global business within the new realities of the interconnected world emerging from the pandemic. It can do so because Austrian companies have been adapting, innovating, and are ready to prosper with their partners in the United States and around the globe.