Vienna - Overview:
Vienna is Austria's most important economic centre, generating approximately 28 per cent of the nation's GDP and employing about a quarter of the nation's workforce. It has a population of between 1.5 and 2 million people. The GDP per capita in Vienna is approximately EUR 34,000, way above most European cities and this level of income is relatively evenly distributed throughout the population. The city is also home to a number of important international organisations including, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO). Such institutions help to attract international attention and, in combination with the federal government bodies that are located in the city, provide high numbers of administrative jobs, the City Council alone employs in excess of 70,000 people.

Economy:
Vienna has significant banking, insurance and manufacturing, sectors. Some of the main products produced in Vienna include machinery, metal products, electrical equipment, chemicals, textiles, clothing, printed materials and paper. Forty per cent of the city's surface area is dedicated to Vienna's agricultural sector, which produces enough vegetables to feed the city's population.

Corporate conventions and congresses play an important role in Vienna's economy. According to the Vienna Tourist Board, this activity alone accounts for approximately 9 per cent of overnight stays. With three congress centres, excellent infrastructure, experienced congress and travel agencies and interpreters, Vienna is one of the world's premier locations for international political and economic meetings and conferences. According to the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), Austria is consistently ranked among the top ten venues. ICCA statistics, published in 2000, Vienna ranked in fourth place behind London, Madrid and Paris.

Local infrastructure:
Vienna airport is situated just 11 miles southeast of the city and offers flights to 135 destinations worldwide including 35 in Eastern Europe. Flights to London and New York take approximately 2 hours and 9 hours respectively. On average, the airport handles just under 30,000 passengers a day and this is expected to increase by around 5 per cent year on year until 2015. During the same period freight traffic is forecast to increase by around 6 per cent a year. To cater for this increase the airport is benefiting from considerable investment to construct a new runway and a high-speed rail interchange station at the airport.

The Port of Vienna, on the river Danube, is Europe's largest inland container port and handling around 1.5 million tonnes of cargo pa. Automobiles are one of the major goods handled by the port, with 80 to 100,000 delivered every year.
Railroad lines link Vienna with virtually every major city in Europe. Vienna is connected to Germany by a modern limited-access highway, which extends north from the city and in the 1980s a highway was constructed to the south.

The public transport system in Vienna is clean and reliable, whereas road traffic is often congested. There are numerous trams, buses, local trains and an underground/subway run by the Eastern Region Transportation Association.

Local workforce:
Vienna is the capital of a country with one of the lowest strike rates in the world and has a tradition of good cooperation between employers and labour representatives. Unemployment in the country is very low and Vienna in particular has much lower rates of unemployment among females and the under 25's than most of Western Europe. However, Austria tends to suffer from an IT skills shortage and this most felt in Vienna since most high-tech jobs are concentrated there.

The standard of general education is high and the city has a student population in the region of 130,000. Vienna has been a university town since 1365 and today the University of Vienna has eight faculties. In addition, the city has some 800 research centres with international reputations. Vienna also has a strong tradition of adult learning.

Standard of Living:
The IMD World Competitiveness Scoreboard 2002 ranks Austria ninth in Europe ahead of Germany Norway and Belgium. The city of Vienna is a fascinating place in which to live and as the former seat of the Hapsburg Empire, has a rich artistic and musical heritage and boasts some very impressive architecture.

The provision of adequate housing is a high priority for the city and there are nearly a quarter of a million government-funded apartments, which provide approximately half a million people with affordable accommodation. There are a variety of new housing projects including some that place such a great emphasis on transport infrastructure that some residential areas have no private traffic.

In a report published in March 2002, the human resources consultancy, William M. Mercer, placed Vienna in joint second place with Vancouver behind Zurich for overall quality of life. The city is generally geared towards providing a good environment and air quality has been continually monitored for the last 30 years. Today, reports of air quality are published daily in various places and continually updated. Almost all of Vienna's water supply comes from high mountain springs.

Business Costs:
According to a study published in 2001 by the international real estate company Richard Ellis, Vienna has the second lowest office rental costs of any city in the EU.