On
May 8, we had two guests from “Advantage Austria”. They are Dr. Franz Schröder and
his intern Mr. Daniel Weißenbacher. Dr. Franz Schröder is Head of the Austrian
economic organization “Advantage Austria”. They visited our class to tell us about
his company.
“Advantage
Austria” is located in kyobo Bldg., Floor 21 1-1, Jongno, 1-ga, Jongno-gu,
03154, Seoul. This organization is the trading-part of the Austrian embassy in
Korea. They provide a broad range of intelligence and business development
services for both Austrian companies and their international business partners.
They also provide all information for Korean companies possibly need to do
business with Austria. All of that information includes business directory and
key information about investment opportunities and the market environment in
Austria. They offer opportunities to get to know Austria and its economy up
close through exhibitions, lectures, presentations and a variety of other
events.
Dr.
Franz Schröder said, many companies want to have some real action and they
require some real head in the countries. So this organization is finding for
that companies some business partners, who are needing some products and could
represent that Austrian products here in Korea. And he said, they have some Austrian
pavilions. So they try to promote this kind of business through trade fairs. This
year they are participating in Kintex at Ilsan Gyeongi and also in Komarine at
Busan.
Mr.
Danieal Weißenbacher is currently working as an intern for Dr. Franz Schröder
and he told us about economy in Austria, how it looks like. He said, Austrian
economy is organized as a social market economy. It means, it’s a combination
of a free market and also some social policies. And he also said, Austria is a
very wealthy country and compared to other countries in the world, It’s constant
direct in the top fifteen countries of the wealthiest countries by the capital
GDP. And the GDP distribute to every percent. Austria has total GDP about 317
billion Euro, which is about 210 billion US Dollar.
Dr.
Franz Schröder said, especially in the german cars (BMW, Volkswagen, Audi,
Mercedes Benz) they have lot of Austrian parts. Specially Germany and Austria
share same language and sometime of history. And they are neighbor. And it’s
easy for them to help economic relations. So the companies are very much
cooperating each other. And he also said, the relationship between Austria and
Germany is similar to that between Korea and China. And Austrian products are
useful in German products. In German machinery, in German cars…
We
would like to thank Dr. Franz Schröder and Mr. Daniel Weißenbacher for visiting
our class and useful presentation. through their presentation, we could learn
about “Advantage Austria”, Austrian economy, its culture and etc. Their speech
was very interesting. And we would like to say also thank you to the professors
for providing meaningful time.
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Dr. Franz Schröder and Mr. Daniel Weißenbacher from Advantage Austria Seoul gave a special lecture in Incheon National University, on May 8, about Austrian economics, business, and current market condition between Austria and Korea.
Advantage Austria Seoul is the organization provides financial information and business development services for Austrian and Korean companies. Advantage Austria Seoul helps Austrian companies expand its business to Korea, and assists Korean companies find Austrian business partners and enter the Austrian market. They give business information and opportunities through web service, lecture, and Austrian pavilion, their own pavilion which offer business information through various events and expositions.
Mr. Danieal Weißenbacher gave us a full information about Economy of Austria, mainly with real GDP. Austria has social market economy blended with free market system. Austria is one of the 14 richest countries in the world in terms of GDP per capita, having a GDP per capita approximately same with profit of Samsung. Austria has around 290,000 tourists visiting each year and this is one of the main factors of Austrian economy. Production makes up about 20% of Austrian GDP, retail and health care make about 6%. And being a part of EU helps Austria to engage ro join the world market.
Tax rates in Austria is very high. Austrian citizens pay more than 70% of their income and business taxation is also high. This taxation system guarantee social welfare programmes, social security and the pension system.
Dr. Franz Schröder explained us about Austrian company and industry. Since production cost is very high in Austria, Austrian companies product chiefly in their overseas plant. There is only few of factory in Austria because of the production cost and also their environmental policy. Since they have strict environmental policy, Austria could preserve the beautiful nature and every lake is edible.
Germany and Austria share language and some kind of history. Germany is the biggest cooperating country with Austria and the next is USA. Company cooperation between Austria and Korea is also great. Major exports to Korea are automotive(BMW mini, BMW 5), machinery(plastic, metal products, pannels…), food(pork, especially pork belly. From among this, plastic is one of the important commodities in Austria. Specially, Vienna, geographically it’s small but they have great technology and education system and it was ranked one of the richest region within Europe.
From March to June 2019, on Wednesday afternoon, this course organizes
presentations or excursions with various representatives of European Companies established in Korea. The
purpose is to gather various expatriates to discover the potential of European
companies and institutions, their presence here in Korea, and the good and bad
of being a European in Korea. 
Our students are studying German or French and European Trade. English
skills are required. Most of them are in the 3rd or 4th academic year. Also our
international exchange students can participate in this class.
