If Austria succeeds in catching up with the leading countries in digitalisation, this will lead to more growth, added value and employment. Economic output could increase by 3.5 percent or up to 17.4 billion euros per year. In addition, 37,000 additional jobs can be created. This is shown by a study by EcoAustria.
Compared to leading countries such as Denmark, the US and Sweden, Austria still has a catch-up potential of about 22 percent. According to the study commissioned by the three major cloud providers Accenture, Avanade and Microsoft Austria, about two thirds of the differences in the digital competitiveness of the countries can be explained by the use of cloud services.
Cloud services are infrastructures or platforms that can be used over the Internet without having to download a separate program. Companies especially benefit from the simplified data exchange.
Farmers could use cloud services to better act against frost, Hermann Erlach of Microsoft Austria said at the press conference on Thursday. Information about temperature and humidity in threatened areas of vineyards and orchards can be sent to the cloud via sensors and automatically provide detailed forecasts of when exactly late frosts can be expected for the cultivated areas.
economic effects
Increasing digitization not only helps individual companies, but also has clear positive economic effects, according to the study. “If Austria can catch up with the most competitive countries in digitization by 2027, this could result in an additional GDP of around EUR 100 billion cumulatively over the years up to 2030,” says EcoAustria director Monika Köppl-Turyna. This corresponds to almost a quarter of current economic output.
A job killer, as is often feared, is not the expansion of IT, Köppl-Turyna said. Cost savings through digitization in one area create new jobs in other areas. In addition, digitization also creates room for higher wages and salaries.
According to Avanade CEO Christiane Noll, the country’s digital competency needs to increase to reach the pinnacle of digitization. Not only the promotion of employees is decisive, but also the integration of digital education in the school system to teach the “workforce of tomorrow” to deal with technologies at an early stage.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
