Reception with BM Karoline Edtstadler, WKK President Jürgen Mandl and IV-GS Christoph Neumayer starts the discourse. Opening of the first day of the congress by LR Sebastian Schuschnig.
Millstatt (OTS) – With the traditional ÖCV white sausage party and the Federal Minister as guests of honor Karoline EdtstadlerWKK President Jürgen Mandl and IV Secretary General Christoph Neumayer The eighth Millstätter Economic Talks started on Wednesday evening. The innovative business format is dedicated to the “non-economic foundations of economic success” and this year is putting our performance culture to the test. At the opening evening, Federal Minister Karoline Edtstadler emphasized the immense value of personal exchange: „Every year, the Millstätter Economic Discussions offer an excellent framework for dialogue and stimulating exchange. Given the numerous challenges we face in Austria and Europe, it is even more important to work together with experts and high-performing entrepreneurs on the solutions of tomorrow. Always with the goal in mind that Europe must not remain the world champion of bureaucracy and over-regulation, but rather must become the champion of value creation and innovation. This is the only way we can secure our business location and our high quality of life in the long term
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From Wednesday to Saturday, experts from business, politics and society will analyze the future of our performance culture and its significance for our European business location. State Councilor Sebastian Schuschnig The official congress program opens on Thursday with a commitment to performance: „We need to bring the importance of performance back into the social discourse, promote it even more, but also demand greater willingness to perform again. This goes far beyond economics. This requires a clear stance and a European solidarity of those willing to perform in order to remain internationally competitive as a business location. Because without a clear commitment to a culture of performance, there is no successful business location. Anyone who fundamentally questions our performance culture and instead demands a 32-hour week, for example, risks the prosperity of the next generations
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International competition is increasingly also a competition between performance cultures. Over 350 guests ask themselves essential questions about the future and discuss how we can secure and further develop our performance culture in a time with such a differentiated understanding of performance for our companies and the location in power talks, workshops and side events in and around Millstatt until Saturday.
WKK President Jürgen Mandl thanked the Millstatt Economic Discussions for setting the topic and underlined: „Finding a healthy approach to performance is of vital importance for Austria and Europe as a business location. We must defend our competitiveness against competitors around the world. And they are always better trained, hungry for success, highly motivated – and are not already thinking about work-life balance, the four-day week and the next sabbatical after their training.
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IV Secretary General Christoph Neumayer explained with regard to the international location competition: „There is a strong willingness to work in Austria; many people want to go the extra mile to ensure quality of life and prosperity in the country. However, they are deterred from doing so by the high tax burden and the highly progressive tax system, because overtime often simply does not pay off and part-time work seems more attractive. This is also reflected in the numbers – at 30.5 percent, Austria has the second highest part-time rate in the EU. At the same time, the labor market is also undergoing profound change, not least due to demographic developments. In times of a shortage of skilled workers and skilled workers, this becomes even more obvious – around 60,000 people retire every year in Austria.
While other locations in the world cultivate their performance cultures and develop in a disciplined manner, Austria and Europe prefer to discuss work-life balance, new work approaches or reduced working hours. We must therefore urgently succeed in making performance worthwhile again; we must move away from the idea of the “nanny” state and towards a “performance culture”.
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The eighth Millstätter Economic Talks will bring together around 35 national and international keynote speakers on stage and in numerous side events in the coming days, including economic philosopher Anders Indset, Mayor of Tübingen Boris Palmer, former Federal Minister and President of the Financial Procuratorate Wolfgang Peschorn, talent professor Matthias Ehrhardt and Siemens -Austria Managing Director Patricia Neumann.
You can find all of this year’s speakers, the diverse network organizations, all partners from the country, region, business and society as well as media partners here.
The detailed program is here available.
Questions & Contact:
Inquiry note: Tina Saxer | tina.saxer@gpk.at | +43 (0)1 585 69 69 – 25 | mwg.or.at | gpk.at