For the land of Salzburg, however, the European Union was not simply a project to prepare its own agriculture for international markets. The EU represented above all a modernisation project for Salzburg. This is clearly evident in the intense efforts made by Salzburg to promote technology. Salzburg managed to channel close to 7.4 million Euro research funds from the European Union into the local economy, more than 14 Euro per capita, and this in spite of the fact that there is no technological university in Salzburg. In the meantime many technological projects of the European Union are firmly based in Salzburg. Nevertheless the modernisation of the economy will never occur solely through the promotion of technology. A healthy economy develops primarily through its ability to be competitive. By the opening up of borders for products from the European Union, the market situation has become more acute since 1995. However, even though widespread fears were expressed, imports did not lead to the collapse of Salzburg companies. On the contrary, businessmen and -women from Salzburg succeeded in gaining new chances abroad by using the newly opened markets. The Gross National Product per capita, respectively employee, markedly exceeds the European as well as Austrian mean. Employees in Salzburg, on an average, earn 31,000 Euro per year, ten per cent more than the European average. Plus: productivity of some 54,000 Euro per employee tops the European mean by more than 16 per cent. This success in the economic core indices underlines the fact that on the one hand the Salzburg regional government has managed to provide optimum framework conditions, and on the other Salzburg’s entrepreneurs have been able to make use of the chance to modernise their businesses.
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