Cross-border Direct Investment and Entrepreneurial Cooperation Within CENTROPE

  • Peter Huber (WIFO)
  • Roman Römisch (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies)

The CENTROPE region, spanning the Austrian Länder of Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland, the Western Hungarian administrative units of Győr–Moson–Sopron and Vas, the Czech region of South Moravia and the Slovak self–governing regions of Bratislava and Trnava, is an important location for foreign direct investment (FDI) within the European Union. At 0.16 FDI projects per 1,000 inhabitants between 2003 and 2010, it ranks among the top players in Europe. Bratislava and Vienna are frontrunners when it comes to service investment projects. Out of a total of 271 NUTS–2 regions in Europe, Bratislava counts the highest number of FDI projects in the field of commercial and transport services (compared to 12th place for Vienna). Regarding FDI in company headquarters and corporate services, Vienna ranks 8th (with 7th place for Bratislava). – This report summarises the results of a study by WIFO and wiiw that was conducted as part of the project "CENTROPE Capacity", co-financed by the European Union (ERDF programm CENTRAL EUROPE).