Chamber of Commerce Austria (Wirtschaftskammer Österreich with the acronym ‘WKO’) President Harald Mahrer travels to Israel next Monday and Tuesday with around 40 representatives of local Austrian companies.
Goal is, as Mahrer is quoted in the ‘Salzburger Nachrichten‘: “to open doors for our economy to a market that is as promising as it is innovative“. It is said to be the largest WKO delegation for many years.
The promotiontext of the WKO sounds a little bit missionary as if Israel companies are yearning for solutions concerning renewable energy, water management and is eager to implement “green politics”.
And I do not remember that Israel asked for “help” from Austria. “Austrian green tech companies deal with a wide variety of topics: from A for waste management to Z for zero-emission architecture and have made Austria the world champion in hydropower and the European champion in renewable energies. Austrian companies can therefore use their innovative strength and international expertise to help Israel embark on a greener path.“, wrote the WOK.
Be it as it may, for sure business cooperations are welcomed and maybe, just maybe, Israel is helping more Austria than vice-versa. An approach of more modesty is for sure more appropriate.
Mordechai Rodgold, ambassador of Israel in Austria, put it friendly with diplomatic words in the correct frame: “The climate goals of Israeli politics are similar to those of Austria and the EU – the zero emissions goal is planned for 2050. A whole series of measures are being taken to achieve these goals. For Austria, there is therefore the opportunity to meet leading companies in this area and to learn from each other“
However, there are already lot of co-operations under way, as reported on VonNaftali. The export from Austria (2022) will be around 1 billion Euro.
Israel imports from Austria was $664.67 million for the year 2021, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade.
In the other direction, it does not look so well, with other word, Israel has a massive trade deficit with Austria. Something which should be changed and at least more balanced as the chart below shows.
Mahrer before leaving Vienna said to ‘Salzburger Nachrichten’: “With a share of 26 percent, the EU is Israel’s most important export market, 35 percent of the country’s imports come from the EU – so there’s a lot of potential there.“
בהצלחה וברוכה הבאה לישראל