|
(number of employees) |
Republic |
CEECs |
CEECs | |||||
|
1 to 19 |
33.1 |
63.9 |
24.3 |
58.1 |
39.3 |
39.2 |
83.3 |
61.5 |
|
20 to 49 |
14.2 |
14.2 |
17.6 |
2.0 |
6.2 |
12.7 |
81.7 |
51.2 |
|
50 to 99 |
20.5 |
18.4 |
20.9 |
9.0 |
22.3 |
19.0 |
33.4 |
24.7 |
|
100 to 499 |
36.1 |
47.8 |
14.9 |
28.1 |
20.3 |
34.3 |
35.3 |
34.8 |
|
500 to 999 |
29.9 |
45.4 |
127.7 |
76.6 |
13.3 |
38.5 |
134.0 |
100.8 |
|
1000+ |
61.4 |
77.6 |
62.1 |
174.2 |
34.7 |
69.6 |
172.5 |
127.5 |
|
Total |
34.7 |
53.6 |
33.8 |
61.4 |
27.2 |
39.1 |
90.4 |
65.7 |
1) Firm size of the Austrian parent company
2) If the parent company has two (or more) affiliates they are accounted twice (or more often).
Source: Austrian National Bank
Table 1 shows this specific FDI feature of ‘low capital requirement’ in the CEECs. Firstly, the table
presents the structure of Austria's FDI in the CEECs by the size of the Austrian parent company. In 1995
only 28.6% of total capital was invested in the CEECs although almost 50% of the affiliates (863 entities
out of 1796) were established there. Secondly, total capital per investment in the CEECs was only ATS
39.1 million and thus considerably lower than those ones of the affiliates established in the Western
OECD countries (ATS 90.4 million per investment).
Furthermore there are large differences between Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia. In
Hungary the huge majority of FDI (45.7%) were accomplished by Austrian enterprises with less than 20
employees. We should bear in mind, however, that this category includes also holding companies. Thus it
makes more sense to focus on the second part of Table 1 where total capital per investment is calculated.
There it appears that in Hungary total capital per investment is the lowest of all CEECs, followed by
Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Slovenia. The last two countries show total capital per investment
which is much higher than in Hungary and Slovakia although far below the amounts of the affiliates
established in the Western OECD countries. We have to keep in mind throughout the further analysis that
on average the total capital per investment in the CEECs is far below the average investment in Western
OECD countries. This verifies that the opening of Central and Eastern Europe also gave SMEs with weak
financial capacities an opportunity for internationalisation. To many of them it was for the first time that
they expanded their economic activity across the Austrian border. It should be mentioned that this
specific feature is very similar to the eastward economic activities of German enterprises (KURZ and
WITTKE, 1997).
Table 2 shows the structure of Austria's FDI in the CEECs by industries for 1995, registered by the
industries of the host countries. Although there are differences between the four CEECs listed in Table 2
we can mainly see six industries in which Austria's FDI is concentrated: finance and insurance (17.9%),
wholesale and retail trade (17.5%), non-metallic products (9.5%), chemicals and petroleum (7.8%), food
and beverages (7.6%) and construction (7.5%). Together these six industries account for more than 65%
of Austria's FDI in the CEECs.
A sector of extraordinary significance is the trading sector. Austria's activities in trade have mainly been
as a result of buying up merchandise trading chains and in addition building up its own sales units. This
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