Austrian Companies in Serbia Optimistic Despite Coronavirus – One Third Plans to Invest More and Employ New People in Next 12 Months

A department for foreign trade promotion of the Austrian Economic Chamber, Advantage Austria Beograd, at the Embassy in Belgrade, announced yesterday that, despite the lowered income in 40% of the surveyed companies that operate in Serbia, 30% planned to invest even more in the next 12 months.

– The great majority of companies has kept the number of employees, and a third even plans to employ even more people in 2021 – the press release says.

The survey of the flaws and advantages of operating in Serbia was carried out in late 2020 among the Austrian companies that employ 20,000 people in Serbia.

It is added that Austrian companies have expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of legal security and transparency, as well as the excessive bureaucracy.

More investment in infrastructure and qualified workforce are also high on the list of the wishes of Austrian investors.

The commercial counselor at the Embassy of Austria in Belgrade, Erika Teoman-Brenner, said that many critical points remained the same year after year, despite the overall improvement in the preceding years thanks to the reforms.

– We would like to see more concrete measures to address the well-known problems. We are convinced that Serbia would remain an attractive location for Austrian companies in that case. The availability of qualified workers will contribute substantially to it – Teoman-Brenner said.

She added that she was glad that Serbia had taken important steps toward the implementation of the dual education system and that Austria was its partner on this project.

Ambasada Republike Austrije

Advantage Austria Beograd

Embassy of Austria

Erika Teoman Brenner

dual education

Austrian investments

drop in income

coronavirus