Strengthening the Independence of Austria as a Business Location for Critical Products

The study examines the possibilities of strengthening Austria's independence as a business location for critical products by increasing the location of production and promoting regional value chains. After a basic conceptual discussion, the study empirically clarifies for the selected critical products whether, firstly, there is an import dependency and, secondly, to what extent a critical product is suitable for production in Austria as an industrial location. For this purpose, broad indicator sets are formed based on recent data on international trade in goods, with which these questions are analysed in great detail. Subsequently, a regional analysis examines in which federal provinces there are favourable initial conditions for the production of the various critical goods. Finally, the role of the state as a buyer of critical goods is examined, and the question of whether specific procurement practices can favour local production is investigated.