Foreword
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The City and Province of Salzburg together with the Bavarian rural districts Berchtesgadener Land and Traunstein want to take advantage of the chances offered by the accession of Austria to the EU on 1st January 1995 and by the enforcement of the Schengen Treaty on 1st April 1998. For this reason, the Euro-Regions Salzburg-Berchtesgadener Land-Traunstein was founded in May 1995, which forms the core of the cross-border European region of Salzburg.
On both sides of the border, which is becoming ever more invisible, a magnificent country unfolds with the world cultural heritage of the City of Salzburg in its centre. Beautiful landscapes, lakes, culture, old cities, mountains, tourism, high-tech, a crisis-proof and efficient mix of branches of large, medium-sized and small companies, a high level of education and its geographic location in the intersection of major European central development axes distinguish this region along the Saalach and Salzach rivers between the lakes Chiemsee and Wolfgangssee. Together, we want to develop the European region of Salzburg further on the basis of its old, historical and cultural links and make it even more worth living in. In our common Euro-Regions we therefore do not want to live beside and against each other, but we want to face the future in co-existence and find partnership solutions in all areas. This is especially valid for activities aiming at the settlement of new firms and questions of environmental planning, traffic issues, a coordinated provision of further education and training, for agreed measures on the labour market and much more. We hope that you can also sense the spirit of this partnership and the impulses it generates when reading this book.
It is very important for us to set an example with the present book and to make the first step aimed at common location marketing. In times, in which there is a worldwide competition between regions and at the same time a return to past values of regional strength and qualities, the concentration of energies in our Euro-Regions acquires a particular significance. Our economic development institutions in the districts Berchtesgadener Land and Traunstein as well as in the City and Province of Salzburg are working together to support existing companies, they realize mutual economy-friendly and -promoting projects, like for instance the project “IT-Region” and they are in direct contact when the issue is about new settlement of enterprises. Dealing fairly and openly with each other enables to handle the competition between individual locations, which albeit cannot be complete avoided. The basic support to this end is created by the Common Declaration of 29th January 2004 in which Bavaria and Salzburg agreed to increase their cooperation further.
Ladies and Gentlemen, come and discover with us the European region of Bavaria-Salzburg with its achievements and qualities as an extremely interesting business location!
We look forward to your visit – and not only in this book!
