Over 130 executives of Austrian business subsidiaries in the United States, Canada and--for the first time--Mexico gathered in New York City for the 12th edition of the business conference Austria Connect. The two-day event, hosted by the Austrian Trade Commission, took place on September 12-13, 2019 at the New York Academy of Sciences. The theme of this year’s conference was “Making Decisions When There Is So Much Noise.”
The event was headlined by Austrian Federal Minister for Education, Science and Research Iris Rauskala, Ambassador Wolfgang Waldner, Vice President of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber Jürgen Roth, Advantage Austria CEO Michael Otter and the former Austrian Chamber President Christoph Leitl, now in his capacity as President of EUROCHAMBRES, the Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
From left: Austrian Economic Chamber Vice President Jürgen Roth with Ambassador Wolfgang Waldner (c) https://twitter.com/WaldnerWolfgang
In his opening remarks, Ambassador Wolfgang Waldner talked about the economic footprint of our small, export-oriented nation in this hemisphere. Over 40,000 American jobs, especially a high number of skilled manufacturing jobs, have been created through investments by Austrian companies. Austrian businesses, entrepreneurs and investors continue to seize the business opportunities the thriving U.S. economy has to offer. Today, the United States are Austria’s second-largest trading partner (after Germany) and the No. 4 destination for Austrian foreign direct investment.
EUROCHAMBRES President Christoph Leitl addresses the participants (c) Austrian Trade Commission New York
from left: Walter Koren (Austrian Trade Commissioner Los Angeles), Andreas Stauber (Austrian Trade Commissioner Washington, DC), Peter Sedlmayer (Austrian Trade Commissioner Chicago), Ambassador Wolfgang Waldner, Friedrich Steinecker (Austrian Trade Commissioner Mexico City) and Christian Lassnig (Austria Trade Commissioner Toronto) (c) https://twitter.com/WaldnerWolfgang
The team of the Austrian Trade Commission in New York welcome EUROCHAMBRES President Christoph Leitl (pictured sixth from left next to Michael Friedl, the Austrian Trade Commissioner in New York) (c) https://twitter.com/Austria_in_US
from left: Florian Krisch (Advantage Austria), Georg Wailand (Publisher of the Austrian economic magazine “Gewinn”), Ruta Grikmane (Latvian Chamber of Commerce), President Christoph Leitl (EUROCHAMBRES) and Dominic Boucsein (EUROCHAMBRES, Head of International Trade and Foreign Policy) (c) Austrian Trade Commission New York
On the first leg of his U.S. visit, EUROCHAMBRES President Leitl held bilaterls in Washington, DC. There he talked with POLITICO trade reporter Adam Behsudi about the importance of transatlantic relations to our joint economic fabric
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