Yerevan, 17 March 2018 – On 12-16 of March 2018, European Business Association participated in the Study Tour for Armenian Business Membership Organisations (BMOs) to Austria and Czech Republic. The tour is the second round of the BMO Academy, organised by the EU-funded SMEDA Project. During the visits in Vienna and Brno, EBA’s Business Development Manager has met the number of key Austrian and Czech institutions’ representatives engaged in the processes of overall business development, export promotion, support to the start-ups and SMEs, sectoral promotion and Public-Private Dialogue. In the course of each day, full of productive meetings with the colleagues from Austria and Czech Republic, potential of cooperation opportunities has been revealed and we are looking forward to a fruitful collaboration in future.
On 12th of March, EBA’s representative along with the colleagues from other Armenian BMO’s met the founders of Austrian Fashion Association (Verein zur Förderung österreichischen Modedesigns) Ms. Marlene Agreiter and Ms. Camille Boyer, which presented the activities of the AFA. On the same day there were meetings held with the representatives of Advantage Austria Austrian federal Economic Chamber (WKO), Embassy of the Republic of Armenia to the Republic of Austria and the Austrian Development Agency (ADA). Mr. Michael Angerer, Regional Director CIS of Advantage Austria Austrian Federal Economic Chamber presented export promotion and the economic relations Austria-Armenia, Mr. Arsen Arakelyan from the Armenian Embassy in Vienna made presentation on the cooperation between Armenia and Austria and Mr. Gunther Schall, Head of Unit Private Sector and Development of Austrian Development Agency presented the Country Strategy of ADA and the projects and opportunities.
On 13 of March, meeting with ÖGB (Federation of Austrian Trade Unions) Ms. Karin Zimmermann and the Executive Director of VIDA Mr. Franz Binderlehner took place at the ÖGB-Catamaran. During the meeting new challenges for Social Partnership and other related topics were discussed. Later on, there was a meeting held with Industriellenvereinigung (Federation of Austrian Industries) representative Ms. Danai Budas, responsible for international relations. She presented the work of the organisation and answered the questions of those presents.
On 14th of March, EBA representative together with other BMO Academy participants visited the City of Brno in Czech Republic. Meetings at the Brno Regional Chamber of Commerce were held with Mr. Jakub Rybar, Head of Cooperation and Development Department of Brno City Municipality, which has briefed on the city activities for business support in the region; Mr. Oto Hrdlicka, Deputy Director and Head of Foreign Affairs of the Brno Regional Chamber of Commerce, which has presented the activities of Brno Regional Chamber of Commerce aimed at the business support in the region. Mr. Radoslav Klepac, Director of External Affairs and International Business Development of BVV Trade Fairs Brno conducted a short site visit at the fairgrounds and presented the main advantages of Brno Trade Fair.
On 15th of March, meetings at the Austrian Federal Ministry of Digital and Economic Affairs (FMDEA) were held with Mr. Anton Bernbacher, Head of Division for Affairs related to State Supervision of Austrian Economic Chambers, who presented the relationship between the FMDEA and the Austrian Economic Chambers; Ms. Julia Mauk and Mr. Adrian Gasser from the Division for International Tourism, Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism, who presented an overview of Tourism in Austria; Mr. Alexander Hölbl, Head of Division for Vocational Training and Education in Austria, who briefed on the dual system of vocational training and education in Austria. Later on, the meetings with Ms. Christina Koch from the Austrian Business Service (Austria Wirtschafts Service AWS) and Mr. Harald Hochreiter from the Austrian Research Promotion Agency took place, which were followed by a meeting with Ms. Susanne Zalcmann from the FMDEA Division for EU-Enlargement, East and Southeast Europe, Central Asia․ She made a presentation on Bilateral Economic Relations between Austria and Armenia. On the same day at the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (AFEC / WKO), Dr. Ulrich Zellenberg made presentations on Legal Basis for Chambers, Public Law Chambers
During the last day of the Study Tour, participants of BMO Academy met Mr. Christian Mutschlechner, Director of Vienna Convention Bureau, who made a presentation on Vienna as a conference destination; Mr. Christian Rupp, Special Representative Digitalization from Strategy Unit of WKO (AFEC), who presented the Digitalization in AFEC. After, Mr. Herbert Stemper, Deputy Manager of WIFI International presented Training Programs in Austrian companies and Mr. Manfred Katzenschlager, Chief Executive Officer of AFEC Federal Tourism and Leisure Industries Division made a presentation on Tourism and Tourism Associations in Austria. On the same day, BMO Academy participants have been introduced to the activities of WKO (AFEC) Private Modul University by Ms. Johanna Aigner, Business Development and Corporate Relations Officer and Mr. Andreas Shcweighofer, Assistant Managing Director and Project Manager Global Campuses of the above-mentioned university. As well as, those presents had meeting with Mr. Eric Savoye, Sector Manager of Advantage Austria AFEC, who presented Advantage Austria – Sectoral Clusters.