CEE Business Club 2019: Businesses and Research Zoom in on Russia
The countries of Central and Eastern Europe offer foreign companies attractive opportunities for growth – but not without risk. At the CEE Business Club 2019 business representatives and researchers worked together at understanding these risks in order to develop future solution strategies.
On 21 September the CEE Business Club took place on the University of Applied Sciences (UAS) Burgenland campus. The UAS Burgenland event offered business and research experts the opportunity to discuss current topics, problems and their solutions in Central and Eastern Europe. Our colleagues of the Competence Center for the Black Sea Region at the UAS BFI Vienna, Head Dr. Johannes Leitner and Senior Researcher and Lecturer Dr. Hannes Meissner, were also among the participants.
“Just letting yourself be deterred would be a lost opportunity.”
In a panel discussion, the participating experts first contemplated risks and opportunities of Eurasian integration. Individual participants‘ brief inputs subsequently stimulated engaging discussions. This year’s discussion rounds distinctly focused on Russia, as Johannes Leitner sums up: “At the CEE Business Club the export and investment opportunities of Austrian companies in and to Russia were examined more closely. Evidently, the economic framework conditions indicate only at second glance that there are opportunities for companies in Russia, which is by far the biggest and most significant market in the entire post-soviet space. Above all, it is important to get a clear picture of the political risk situation and – together with experts – to develop solution strategies to be able to handle the market as best as possible. Just letting yourself be deterred would be a lost opportunity.”
That this year‘s CEE Business Club was larger than in recent years mirrors increased business and research interests in the Central and Eastern European region. Not least this is presumably due to relations between the EU and individual Eastern European countries having become more complex, which entails increased political risk for foreign companies operating there. This political risk in the Black Sea Region is also addressed by the current research project of the Competence Center for the Black Sea Region: STRATOS. You can find more on STRATOS, the Competence Center at the UAS BFI Vienna und our publications here at our website.
