Substudy 10: Productivity-increasing Infrastructure Investment

Infrastructure investment is a key tool to control economic demand, and it contributes specifically to stimulating employment, economic growth and the locational quality offered by Austria. The priority must be on investment to close gaps and eliminate bottlenecks. Many sectors of the tangible infrastructure require improvement, especially when it comes to road and rail links to the new EU member countries, but also the electricity grid where priority should be accorded to closing the gap in the north-south grid, extending decentralised electricity supply and developing alternative energy resources. In the telecoms sector, emphasis needs to be given to full-scale coverage, enhancing competition in broadband technologies and demand for ICT. The domestic water supply sector is in the midst of a change from covering the domestic market to exports and consulting services. Another factor of equal importance for growth and employment will be the intangible infrastructure (bottleneck management, logistics, planning services, network optimisation and problem solutions). Considerable growth potential can be found in the export of corporate know-how in the field of infrastructure (such as tunnelling, telematics, supply and disposal, or water engineering).