CENTROPE is a multilateral project which develops a binding and lasting cooperation framework for the collaboration of regions and municipalities, business enterprises and societal institutions in the Central European Region. Thus it covers the regions Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland, South Moravia Region, Bratislava and Trnava Regions, Györ-Moson-Sopron as well as Vas County. The CENTROPE Business and Labour Report is joint project of WIFO Vienna, wiiw Vienna, Institute for Economic Research of Slovak Academy of Sciences, IREAS – Institute for Structural Policy Prague, West Hungarian Research Institute Györ.

3. The centrope Business & Labour Preface
Report – a tool for cross-border
policy making
For several years, centrope has been is conceived as an annual publication
one of the most dynamic, transnational so that the relevant regional business
economic areas of the European Union. agencies, enterprises, chambers and
Located at the interface between the federations as well as policy-makers
business centres of the “old EU” and the and administrations can monitor the
growth areas of Eastern and South-Eastern economic development in the trans-
Europe, centrope has the potential of national economic area of centrope
developing into a significant Central and are able to elaborate concerted
European hub. This is illustrated both by labour-market and employment-policy
major investments made by the automo- actions.
tive industry in recent years as well as
the high number of international com- The present report constitutes a first
panies that set up their European head- prototype that can be expanded to
quarters in centrope. include additional features in the next
few years. It was prepared in co-opera-
Economic-policy actors now face the tion between research institutes in
main challenge of using the current “win- Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary
dow of opportunity” for exploiting the and Slovakia so that the know-how
existing potentials. Positioning centrope on economic development and data
as an internationally competitive busi- available in and on the region is used
ness location for high-quality products in an optimum way and opportunities
and services requires joint cross-border for harmonising data are jointly
efforts and increasingly harmonised exploited.
labour-market and economic policies.
The present centrope Business & Labour centrope, November 2007
Report provides a valuable basis for
cross-border policy-making. The report © ecoplus

4. Introduction
centrope – a transitional region
on the move
The comparative advantage of centrope lies in its Economic integration across borders rapidly increases
position between the Western European centres and but still lags behind intra-national levels
the rapidly growing Eastern European region
Similarly, the centrope region is still less integrated than regions
The centrope region is one of the most important transnational within one country. Economic ties and cross-border activities
economic areas at the former eastern borders of the European have significantly increased within centrope over the last one
Union. centrope is a region of enormous economic potential. It and a half decades. According to recent surveys, around a
is located at the intersection of four countries, comprises two quarter of the firms located in the region have cross-border
capital cities (Vienna and Bratislava) as well as several further relationships (in the form of ownership, delivery relationships
major cities (Brno, Győr) and covers some of the most dynamic and/or other forms of co-operation). Yet, cross-border exchange,
regions in the Central and Eastern European countries as well as in particular in the labour market, still remains limited due to
some of the most prosperous regions within the EU (Vienna). existing institutional impediments and bottlenecks in infra-
Situated at the crossroads of important European transport structure.
corridors and disposing of efficient international airports,
centrope offers excellent accessibility and short distances to all However, these ties, too, can be expected to further strengthen
the key markets in Europe. Given its big and expanding market in the near future as internal and external accessibility will be
together with its favourable location and high accessibility, improved by the measures planned for closing existing gaps
centrope is one of the key European areas for both large and and eliminating bottlenecks in the cross-border transport net-
small to medium-scale investments. The high number of insti- works as well as plans to step up the modernisation of the
tutions of research and development and higher education in existing infrastructure. Furthermore, institutional and physical
centrope add to this, and are a key factor for attracting highly barriers that still hamper the full exploitation of the economic
innovative industries and services, which in turn are the basis potential of centrope, e.g. in the field of labour mobility, are
for a sustained period of economic growth and prosperity. likely to be removed within the next years.
Despite these favourable conditions, centrope neither lies in One consequence of this increasing economic integration of
the economic nor the geographic centre of Europe. Rather, it the centrope region is the need for the parallel evolution of
is a region at the interface between the European economic cross-border policy-making. As a result, economic policy co-
centres, which are located to the west of the region, and the operation is a must in order to facilitate economic integration.
less developed but rapidly growing centres of Eastern Europe. In the end, the successful development of centrope crucially
Thus, centrope is a “transitional” region, in which good accessi- depends on integrated policies that share similar goals and, as a
bility from the economic centres of Western Europe and from consequence, also result in concerted decisions.
the rapidly growing Eastern European countries give rise to
comparative advantages. As recently evidenced by a number
of spectacular foreign direct investments, these in general lie
in a strong industrial base especially in ancillary industries (such
as automotive components), a strong orientation to medium
skill and niche products and, in particular in the eastern part of
centrope, a rapid technological catch-up process and low wage
costs.
© ACVR
2

5. A dynamic but inhomogeneous
growth region
The Economic Situation
of the centrope Region
centrope is characterised by strong centres located the Bratislava region – currently qualify for EU funding under
at the border of two territories with major economic
“Objective 1” to support the catch-up process of structurally
differences
weak regions; their GDP per capita is much lower than the
EU-25 average. In the richest region of centrope (Vienna),
GDPper capita at purchasing power parity was 172.3% of the
Despite the many common features highlighted above, centrope EU-25 average, while it only reached 55.8% of the average in the
is by no means a homogenous region today. This comes as no poorest region (Trnava).
surprise. Covering a territory of more than 44,000 square kilo-
GDP PER CAPITA 2004
metres and a population of almost 6.5
million inhabitants, the region is simi- Purchasing power parities
lar in size to many medium-sized or Source: Eurostat.
smaller countries of the EU. Thus, sub-
stantial internal disparities exist.
These disparities can be structured
along two dimensions. First, there are
significant differences between the
regions of centrope located in different
countries and second there are sub-
stantial differences between the cities,
their environs and more rural areas.
Although in many respects the eco-
nomic development of the region is
closely linked to the economies of the
"twin capitals" of Vienna and Bratislava and the large agglomer- The centrope regions in the new member states
ations of Brno and Győr, centrope is not a typical central
region in the European context. Its settlement structure, on have embarked on a stable catch-up process with
the old member states
average, is not dominated by large cities. Rather – as in most
parts of Central Europe – medium-sized towns prevail. At the
same time, centrope is not a peripheral region either. Only
some parts of centrope (such as Southern Burgenland, the
Waldviertel in Lower Austria and parts of South Moravia and However, not all the differences in centrope follow purely
Vas County) may be considered rural peripheries. Thus, cen- national lines. For instance, the capital city of Bratislava boasts
trope can be best described as a region characterised by strong a per capita GDP that is comparable to the Austrian regions
centres located at the intersection of two territories of the EU and lies above the EU average; together with its “twin city”
Vienna, Bratislava is one of the economic strongholds of
centrope. Burgenland, on the other hand, has been an “Objec-
with major economic differences.
tive 1” region until recently; its GDP per capita is not only
below the EU average but also below the centrope average.
Due to the legacies of the communist regimes, the main divid-
ing line within the region was and still is the border between
the new member states and Austria: While in the Austrian
parts, per capita GDP approaches or exceeds the EU average, While regions located in the new member states may be
all the centrope regions of the new member states – except for considered to be generally “poorer” than the Austrian regions,
3

6. GDP GROWTH 1995/2004
Average annual change in %
Source: Eurostat, WIFI calculations.
their dynamism is also significantly higher. Since 1995, GDP percentages of the workforce having only primary education
growth rates in the Czach, Hungarian and Slovak regions of can only be found in Western Transdanubia. Infrastructure
centrope ranged between 7% and 12% and clearly outper- endowments, accessibility and innovation indicators tend to
formed the Austrian regions (with growth rates of 3% to 4%). follow these patterns. In particular, indicators of research
The rapid catch-up process of the Central and Eastern Euro- & development activity (such as R&D expenditure, patents per
pean countries, thus, makes the whole centrope region more 1000 inhabitants) and infrastructure quality are clearly above
dynamic than the European average. the EU average for the large agglomerations (in particular
Vienna and Bratislava), but not for the more peripheral region.
Sectoral structure differs substantially between the Finally, the employment structure differs between the Austrian
eastern and western parts of centrope, but structural regions and the Czech, Hungarian and Slovak regions. In the
centrope regions of the new member states, a significantly
change is particularly dynamic in the eastern part higher share of the employees (29.5% vs. 16.4% in the Austrian
regions) works in manufacturing and a smaller share in the
Similarly, the structure of the labour force and infrastructure service sector (in particular, employment in public services is
endowments differ significantly across regions. Aside from around 5 percentage points lower in the regions of the new
national differences, disparities in education systems are also member states than in the Austrian part of centrope.)
closely associated with urbanisation: In general, centrope is
characterised by a highly qualified workforce that has its As with aggregate GDP, however, the regions of the new mem-
strongholds in the secondary and upper secondary education ber states are also more dynamic in terms of structural change.
levels. In particular in the Czech and Slovak regions, around For instance, indicators of structural change at a high level of
80% of the employed persons have completed secondary edu- sectoral aggregation suggest that the Czech, Hungarian and
cation. The share of population with tertiary education is, how- Slovak regions of centrope are also converging in structure to
ever, below the European average in all the regions except the the Austrian regions and have experienced a structural change
capital cities of Vienna and Bratislava where around a quarter that was almost twice as strong as in the Austrian regions.
of the workforce has completed tertiary education. High
4

7. CENTROPE PARTNERS IN FOCUS: ded GDP growth rates that were slightly sulted in a clear West-East differential in
> AUSTRIA < above average over the last decade and, regional growth so that the Austrian cen-
in recent years, strongly profited from trope regions exhibited below-average
The Austrian part of centrope is com- export-led growth. The unemployment growth. Among the Austrian provinces,
posed of the capital city of Vienna, rate of this region is in the middle ranges Burgenland and Vienna – which have
Lower Austria and Burgenland. of the Austrian provinces. low manufacturing shares in gross value
added – had the lowest GDP growth.
Vienna is a typical urban region with a Burgenland is the poorest of the Austrian Only Lower Austria profited from its
strong service sector (around 85% of provinces. In particular, the south is cha- strong manufacturing base and had an
GDP), and a high GDP per capita racterised by rural-peripheral regions. In above-average growth rate.
(179.9% of the EU average at purcha- the last decade, however, the combined
sing power parity, 5th rank among EU effects of EU funds and improved acces- Employment growth followed these
NUTS II regions). Among the Austrian sibility due to the fall of the iron curtain general lines: as with GDP growth,
regions, Vienna is unique due to its high resulted in the highest GDP and second the western non-centrope provinces of
productivity growth. This and substantial highest employment growth rates in Austria and the provinces with a strong
structural changes have led to low Austria. Nevertheless, the high unem- industrial base, expanded employment
employment growth and high unemploy- ployment rate which is driven by high more rapidly than the Austrian centrope
ment in the last decade. As a result, seasonality and dynamic labour supply regions. High employment growth also
Vienna is the Austrian province with the remains one of the unresolved problems led to a relatively strong reduction in
highest unemployment rate. in the region. unemployment rates in 2006. On
account of divergent increases in labour
Lower Austria is the biggest Austrian In 2006, the regional growth pattern in supply, reduction in unemployment was,
province and, because of its size, it is Austria was mainly determined by regio- however, regionally much more evenly
also relatively heterogeneous. In gene- nal specialisation. The export-oriented distributed and ranged between 0.5 p.p.
ral, the province is marked by the third manufacturing sector dominated regio- and 0.4 p.p. in the Austrian centrope
highest share of manufacturing in GDP nal developments and its dynamism also regions.
in Austria (27.9%). Lower Austria recor- spilled over to other sectors. This re-
CENTROPE PARTNERS IN FOCUS: amount of foreign direct investment quarter of all employed persons in South
> CZECH REPUBLIC < South Moravia received over the last Moravia, followed by business services,
The Czech part of centrope, South decade. wholesale trade and repair as well as the
Moravia, is economically dominated by construction industry.
the Brno agglomeration. Being the second In South Moravia, which belonged to the
largest city, it is one of the main centres fastest growing regions of the Czech From 2005 to 2006, employment in-
of economic activity in the Czech Repub- Republic throughout transition as well as creased especially in most manufactur-
lic. Due to Brno’s relatively high eco- in recent years, the intensity of changes ing sectors. The highest employment
nomic potential as well as due to its in employment structure was less pro- growth rates occurred in the production
function as a centre for higher education nounced than in the rest of the Czech of transport facilities, of computers and
and for research and development, it has Republic. Thanks to higher employment business machines and of television
a significant influence on the general growth in the tertiary sector, the employ- sets. Other industries recording signifi-
sectoral pattern of activity in South ment decline was essentially lower than cant employment growth are business
Moravia. Thus, despite its strong indus- elsewhere. At the same time, the struc- services and construction. By contrast,
trial base, South Moravia has – in Czech ture of employment has continually the number of employees in agriculture
terms – a relatively high share of ser- advanced towards the pattern in West- and forestry decreased in 2006. Still,
vices (and a relatively low share of agri- ern European countries. The most overall employment growth was positive
culture) in output and employment. important sector in terms of its share in in South Moravia. Accordingly, the
Additionally, Brno is also one of the main total employment is the manufacturing unemployment rate decreased from 10.2
factors contributing to the relatively high industry, which accounts for more than a to 8.8 percent.
5

8. Low unemployment and a need
for highly skilled labour
The Labour Market Situation
in the centrope Region
Substantial common problems and some specific Yet, some labour market problems persist. These may be
national aspects in centrope’s labour market
summarised as follows:
Considering the labour market in a European context, centrope • Due to a history of early retirements and the downsizing of
is a region with relatively low unemployment rates and a labour the labour force in the course of industrial restructuring,
market participation that is equal to or slightly higher than the employment rates of the population aged 55 and above are
EU average. Labour market disparities within the region seem low relative to the EU level in four regions of centrope. In
to be less influenced by national borders than other indicators Bratislava and South Moravia, the rate is above the European
of economic development. Only one region in centrope average of 42.5% and, in the Hungarian centrope regions, it
(Trnava) was characterised by two-digit unemployment rates remains only slightly below this value. In all the Austrian
according to EU Regio data in 2005. Vienna and South Moravia regions where early retirement was particularly popular until
had unemployment rates of 9.1% and 8.1%, those of all other the recent changes in the pension system, employment rates
regions were around 5% to 6% – as compared to 9% in the of the elderly are around 30%; they are even lower in Trnava
European average. (28.8% – for the corresponding NUTS II region of West
Slovakia).
Furthermore, employment rates exceeded the European aver-
age of 63.7% in all but the Hungarian centrope regions and • Aside from low employment rates of the elderly, youth
Trnava. The highest values were observed in Lower Austria unemployment rates are above the EU average in Vienna,
(69.9%), Bratislava (69.6%) and Burgenland (68.1%). Vienna and South Moravia and Trnava, but below this average for the
South Moravia were very close to the European average. centrope region as a whole. Youth unemployment has
recently also been on the decline in most Austrian provinces.
Thus, the majority of centrope regions are – relative to the EU
average – privileged in terms of the labour market situation. • Given the low overall unemployment rates, longterm unem-
ployment reaches a relatively high level in some of the Czech,
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE 2005 Hungarian and Slovak regions of centrope,
Source: Eurostat. but it is low in the Austrian part of centrope.
In 2005, Bratislava and the Hungarian
centrope regions were below the European
average, while South Moravia and the Slovak
centrope region around Trnava stayed above.
This indicates a severe mismatch between
the qualifications of the unemployed and
the requirements of prospective employers,
as would be expected in economies experi-
encing structural changes at the speed
observed in the centrope region.
• Finally, a lack of skilled labour is reported
very frequently across the region. This
applies both to the automotive industry
(especially in the Czech Republic and
Slovakia) and to many segments of the
high-skill service sector, such as health-care
6

9. professionals, architects, civil engineers and IT experts. These as a smaller proportion of people with the highest levels of
develop ments may be partly attributed to the large inflow education.
of FDI, which spurs the demand for skilled labour.
Despite having a small number of people with the lowest levels
In summary, based on aggregate indicators, the labour market of education in their labour force, the position of this group
situation of the centrope region can be described as relatively in the labour market of the new member states’ regions of
favourable when compared to the EU average. Furthermore – centrope is much worse compared to the same group of
and perhaps more surprisingly –, labour market patterns in the workers in the EU-15 labour markets (a gap of 20 to over 30 p.p.
centrope regions are more similar and less strongly influenced in employment and unemployment rates). This is due to the
by cross-country differences than often perceived. When combination of heavy industrial restructuring in the last
clustering all the regions of EU member states according to decade, which has led to a massive shift of labour demand to
the above-mentioned labour market indicators, all centrope occupations requiring higher qualifications, and a narrowly
regions belong to what may be considered a typical Central defined professional education system, which contributes to
European labour market group encompassing – aside from low flexibility of labour markets.
centrope – southern Germany, northern Italy and the remain-
ing provinces of Austria. On the other hand, the employment rates of the medium and
highly educated do not differ much between the new member
A high share of centrope’s workforce has
states and the EU-15. At the high-skill end of the labour mar-
a medium education level
ket, an interesting phenomenon can be seen. In this segment
of the labour market, there are clear signs that the situation is
much tighter in centrope than in the EU-15: in view of high
An analysis of labour market developments with respect to dif- and rising employment and very low unemployment rates, the
ferent skill types, however, shows that centrope has a supply demand for highly skilled labour currently exceeds the supply.
structure that differs from the one of the most developed The situation is even tighter where the 25- to 35-year age group
EU countries (EU-15): centrope has a significantly smaller is concerned.
proportion of people with low levels of education as well
SKILL STRUCTURE OF THE WORKFORCE IN centrope 2005
Source: Eurostat.
7

10. Recent developments document the
good growth prospects of the region
Current Economic
Development and
Outlook
During the last few years, the new EU member states among The labour market has improved in most centrope
the centrope countries experienced strong economic growth
countries
in terms of income, industrial output and exports and recently
also employment. This also applies to the year 2006. Slovakia Labour market conditions also improved in most centrope
recorded its most rapid economic expansion since transition countries in 2006. Following the EU-wide trend, unemploy-
began (+8.3%), while the Czech Republic maintained robust ment dropped significantly in Slovakia (from 16.3% to 13.4%)
growth. Only Hungary was an outlier, as GDP growth was less and moderately in the Czech Republic (from 7.9% to 7.1%).
than 4% as a consequence of the austerity package introduced Austria’s unemployment rate, though already quite low (5.2%),
in mid-2006. Austria, though growing at a slower pace than fell to 4.7%. Only Hungary recorded a slight increase in the
these countries, still recorded a GDP growth rate of more than
3% – for the first time since six years. In total, the centrope
unemployment rate – from 7.2% in 2005 to 7.5% in 2006.
countries grew faster than the countries of the “old” EU (i.e. This development is largely attributable to rising employment
EU-15) in 2006 in terms of real GDP, thus prolonging a period based on strong GDP growth. Despite these general improve-
of above-average growth that started in 2004 for Austria and ments, some structural aspects of unemployment remained
already 2001 for the other three countries. unchanged or even deteriorated. Regional disparities in the
new member states are still widening and interregional mobility
High growth in the centrope countries in 2006 was closely is low. Thus, in several countries, labour shortages in some
linked to a dramatic increase in industrial production. A con- regions or sectors co-exist with high unemployment in other
siderable acceleration of industrial growth occurred in Slovakia regions. In the new member states, labour shortages occurred
(+6.6 p.p. from 3.3% to 9.9%), where the foreign owned manu- much earlier than might have been expected after years of
facturing cluster shifted into top gear in terms of exports. almost jobless growth and high unemployment. High unem-
In the Czech Republic and Hungary, industrial output grew ployment had persisted for a long period of time, resulting in a
approximately at the same rate as in Slovakia. The acceleration large proportion of long-term unemployed who are nearly
of industrial output growth was also impressive in Austria unemployable as their skills have eroded, they lack any motiva-
(+4.4 p.p. – around twice as high as in the euro area or the tion to work and their level of education is low.
EU-27 on aggregate).
GROSS VALUE ADDED GROWTH IN INDUSTRY 1995-2004 BY centrope REGIONS
Source: Eurostat.
8

11. The increasing demand for labour also puts pressure on wages. policy is taken into account. From 2007 onwards, the countries
Available data point to an increase in the wage bill in industry in Central and Eastern Europe will receive on a net basis around
in Slovakia and the Czech Republic where only recently workers +2.5 to +4% of their GDP. The importance of these funds is
went on strike for higher pay at the Skoda car plant. illustrated by the fact that under the European Recovery
Programs (Marshall Plan), Western Europe received financial
Favourable macroeconomic forecasts for most
assistance from the USA from 1948 to 1952 that on average
centrope countries
reached 2.1% of the GDP of the respective countries per year.
The optimistic outlook for the centrope countries is good
news for the individual centrope regions within these coun-
Though GDP growth rates will be somewhat lower in 2008,
especially for Hungary, the centrope countries will grow at a
tries. Given the high correlation between country growth and
the economic development of its regions, the regions can be
respectable pace – compared to the EU-27. Exports from the
centrope countries are expected to rise further, given the
expected to enjoy economic prosperity just as much as the
countries as a whole. This is especially true for the centrope
regions. With a few exceptions, the centrope regions belong to
favourable international environment, the growing import
demand of the region’s main trading partners as well as the the most prosperous and most dynamic regions within their
continuing competitiveness of the three new member states
within centrope. Limitations for economic growth in the
countries. Hence, given the past development of these regions
as well as their economic structure, it is likely that the centrope
centrope countries potentially come from the increasingly
regions will not only benefit from the good macroeconomic
tight labour markets where the lack of highly skilled labour
development in their countries, but will also be major contrib-
utors to economic growth in the centrope countries.
might dampen the future development of high value added
activities.
Still, the outlook for centrope is optimistic and even more so
when the substantial funding from the European cohesion
GDP GROWTH AND FORECASTS OF centrope COUNTRIES
Source: WIIW.
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Forecast Forecast
Austria 0.9 1.2 2.3 2.0 3.3 3.4 2.4
Czech Republic 1.9 3.6 4.6 6.5 6.4 5.0 5.2
Hungary 4.4 4.2 4.8 4.1 3.9 2.7 3.1
Slovak Republic 4.1 4.2 5.4 6.0 8.3 8.5 8.0
centrope 2.8 3.3 4.3 4.6 5.2 4.3 4.3
EU-25 1.2 1.3 2.4 1.8 3.0 2.8 2.6
EU-15 1.1 1.2 2.3 1.6 2.8 2.7 2.5
9

12. CENTROPE PARTNERS IN FOCUS: > HUNGARY < Győr-Moson-Sopron has attracted more international capital
and the firms coming into the region fulfil on average more
The Hungarian part of centrope comprises the counties of "headquarter functions" than international firms in Vas. In addi-
Győr-Moson-Sopron and Vas both located in the NUTS II tion to production-oriented activities, research and develop-
region of Western Transdanubia. This region belonged to the ment is increasingly carried out at this Hungarian location as
ten fastest growing NUTS II regions in the EU in the last well. Consequently, the firms' competitiveness relies less on
decade (only the Baltic countries, Ireland and two other Hun- low labour cost which reduces their vulnerability to increases
garian regions – Central Hungary and Central Transdanubia – in Hungarian wages and salaries. Moreover, while companies
had higher growth rates). The unemployment rate in the region in Vas seem to have little business links with local firms, region-
was at 5.9% according to the Labour Force Survey in 2005 and al supplier networks and clusters are formed in Győr-Moson-
thus the second lowest in Hungary. Sopron. The higher level of regional embeddedness of
international firms in that region provides an important impulse
The Hungarian centrope regions greatly benefited from eco- to the regional economy.
nomic transition by attracting international investors; however,
the internationalisation process and the economic develop- Despite its privileged role in previous years, a combination of
ment it induced differs significantly within the region: Income factors (such as the effects of budgetary saving and relocation
levels are highest in the northernmost region of Győr-Moson- of some companies) resulted in a decline of total real gross
Sopron and decrease as one moves southward, with Vas still value added (GVA) by -1.3% in the Hungarian centrope re-
growing significantly above the national average and the gions in 2005, with Vas experiencing a reduction of real GVA
region of Zala (which does not belong to centrope) lagging of -2.8% and Győr-Moson-Sopron performing much better but
behind. also below the national average with -0.4%. Labour market
development of the Hungarian centrope regions was, how-
This uneven intraregional development is due to differences in ever, still better than in the Hungarian average in 2006.
industrialisation (Vas is much more burdened with a high share Employment grew by +0.5% (+0.1% nation-wide) and the
of labour-intensive industrial employment than Győr-Moson- unemployment rate increased by only +0.1 percentage points
Sopron) but also to different responses to internationalisation. (+0.2 percentage points nation-wide).
CENTROPE PARTNERS IN FOCUS: > SLOVAKIA < of the Trnava region is also below the Slovak average. Within
the region, a pattern can be observed that is similar to the one
Both the Bratislava and Trnava regions, which form the Slovak
for the economic activity rate.
part of centrope, are the economically most prosperous re-
gions in Slovakia. Yet, they are not directly comparable. The
Bratislava region has enormous locational advantages and As far as changes in the economic development are con-
excellent starting conditions as a capital city. Together with cerned, both Slovak centrope regions are the leading regions
domestic investments, the inflow of foreign direct investments in Slovakia. Looking at the development from 2001 to 2005,
is one of the relevant driving forces in its robust economic labour productivity rose by 42% in the Slovak Republic. In the
development. Trnava, by contrast, draws its economic advan- Slovak centrope regions, the increase was around 55%
tages from its proximity to Bratislava and to the Czech Republic (Bratislava) and 54% (Trnava).
with their developed transport infrastructures.
High economic growth also led to increasing employment rates
The leading role of both regions, but also the differences in the Slovak centrope regions. Overall, Slovak employment
across the two regions are reflected in the labour market situa- grew by 2.8% between 2001 and 2005. The Slovak centrope
tion. In the Bratislava region, the economic activity rate is the regions performed much better than the Slovak average in this
highest in the Slovak Republic. The economic activity rate of respect: Bratislava recorded an employment rise by 7% and
the Trnava region is above the Slovak average, but still lags Trnava an increase of 5.7%. In the Bratislava region, most jobs
behind the rate of Bratislava. This is mainly due to the south- were created in real estate activities, public administration and
ern part of Trnava with large shares of agriculture and the financial intermediation. The largest decline in employment
north-west districts characterised by a mountainous relief and was in education as well as agriculture, hunting and forestry. In
an underdeveloped local infrastructure. The lagging districts Trnava, high employment growth was recorded in manufactur-
also record a significant share of long-term unemployment. ing, construction, public administration, hotels and restaurants,
The unemployment rate of the Bratislava region is the lowest in and real estate activities. The sharpest decline was observed
the Slovak Republic. It is close to the “natural unemployment in agriculture, wholesale and retail sale and in education.
rate” (tantamount to full employment). The unemployment rate
10

13. Cross-border policy-making
required
Policy Recommendations
In summary, centrope is a region in which the rapid economic >> Fostering cross-border innovation systems
integration can be expected to continue in the next years. This
requires the parallel evolution of cross-border policy-making. In the long term, however, the competitiveness of the centrope
region – like the competitiveness of all other regions in devel-
>> Strengthening comparative advantages oped countries – will strongly depend on its capability to com-
pete in international markets for technologically advanced
In this context, one of the central objectives of economic policy products. Thus, activities aiming to maximise cross-border
is and will be to secure and improve the region’s attractiveness knowledge spill-overs and to establish an efficient cross-border
for investments. Given the comparative advantages of centrope innovation system will be central for the future development of
as a location for ancillary industries, developing and deepening the region. This suggests that high priority should be given to
existing cross-border supply chains should be one of the priori- initiatives fostering the mobility of researchers and university
ties for policy-makers. In the field of SME policy, the key issue in students within the region as well as initiatives promoting cross-
this respect is to provide highly visible information on potential border co-operation in the field of research and development in
partners for cross-border co-operation. the future.
© Vienna IT Enterprises_Getty Images
11

14. >> Investing in public infrastructure >> Developing cross-border actor >> Co-ordinating labour market
networks policies
Developing cross-border co-operation
will, however, also require investments in Finally, in the field of labour market pol-
infrastructure. While the insufficient state Closely related thereto, substantial efforts icy, future activities should increasingly
of road and, more generally, transport should be made to develop decentralised focus on the exchange of best practices
infrastructure of centrope has been often cross-border actor networks and to for active labour market policy and for
criticised, recent investment plans sug- bring these networks to deliver services tackling the shortage of skilled labour
gest that policy is at least partly address- and policies that result in a noticeable that is now felt almost everywhere in
ing the bottlenecks that still exist. improvement of the living conditions for centrope. Establishing efficient channels
However, other areas of public infrastruc- the population of centrope. In some for cross-border placements of workers
ture development should also be increas- areas (e.g. labour market policy), such will be another important issue in cross-
ingly considered from a cross-border networks already exist. Here, the key to border labour market management.
perspective. Co-operation activities in the further development will be to demon- Much can be expected from such meas-
school system are a good example of the strate the achievements also to the wider ures because many labour market prob-
returns that can be gained from such ini- public. In other areas (such as municipal lems are similar in centrope and the
tiatives. Co-operation should, neverthe- and public services), by contrast, such demand for the cross-border placement
less, become more and more common in networks will have to be more forcefully of workers is likely to increase when
all fields of public service provision rang- developed in order to better identify current institutional obstacles to cross-
ing from municipal services to healthcare. areas of co-operation. border labour mobility will be removed.
© MA 18

15. Scientific Partners:
The centrope Business and Labour Report 2007
was elaborated by a consortium of scientific institutes
from all four centrope partner countries:
• Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO):
http://www.wifo.ac.at/
Oliver Fritz, Peter Huber, Gerhard Palme
• Institute for Structural Policy (IREAS):
http://www.ireas.cz/
Martin Pelucha, Viktor Keton
centrope Partners
• Institute of Economic Research at the Slovak Academy
of Sciences:
http://www.ekonom.sav.sk/
Karol Frank
• Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW):
http://www.wiiw.ac.at/
Roman Römisch
PARTNER REGIONS • West Hungarian Research Institute (WHRI):
• Bratislava http://www.rkk.hu/nyuti/
• Burgenland Mihaly Lados
̋
• Gyor-Moson-Sopron
• Lower Austria Contact:
• South Moravia centrope Project Secretariat
• Trnava c/o Europaforum Wien – Centre for Urban Dialogue
• Vas and European Policy
• Vienna Rahlgasse 3/2, 1060 Vienna, Austria
Tel. +43-1-5858510-0
PARTNER CITIES Fax. +43-1-5858510-30
• Bratislava office@centrope.info
• Brno www.centrope.info
• Eisenstadt
• Gyor̋ Imprint:
• Sopron Published by:
• St. Pölten the Austrian Provinces of Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland
• Szombathely (promoters of the centrope 2006 plus project)
• Trnava Responsibility for the contents:
• Vienna Austrian Institute of Economic Reasearch (WIFO),
Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW)
Edited by:
Johannes Lutter (Europaforum Wien)
Translation & proof-reading:
Regina Thaller – Euro Text Services, Vienna
Layout and illustrations:
clara monti graphic, Vienna
Printed by:
Simply More Printing, Vienna
www.centrope.info Supported under INTERREG III A by the European Union.