“The 'USP' of the Automotive Region CENTROPE lies in its multi-faceted character”
Starting with next year, approx. four million vehicles annually will be rolling off the assembly lines of the big automotive corporations in the extended CENTROPE area (a radius of roughly 300 km around Vienna). With the Automotive Cluster CENTROPE, a competence platform has been set up to generate synergy effects in training, research and production. We spoke to Peter Kuen of the Automotive Cluster Vienna Region about the opportunities and potentials of the CENTROPE Region to establish itself as an international automotive hub.
centrope.news: Mr. Kuen, you have been serving as cluster manager of the Automotive Cluster Vienna Region for the past two years. Could you explain in layman’s language what exactly a cluster is and what the functions of a cluster manager are?
Kuen: There are many different definitions of what a cluster actually is. The Automotive Cluster Vienna Region (ACVR) is a cluster initiative of the Federal Provinces of Vienna and Lower Austria that was called into life to support enterprises in the region through information, projects and events. The tasks of a cluster manager are quite varied. One of the nicest aspects lies in the personal contacts with enterprises. Every year, we visit over 50 current and potential co-operation partners from the industry and speak about problems, projects and success stories directly on-site, as it were.
centrope.news: ACVR was created six years ago – what has changed in the region since its establishment?
Kuen: Today, ACVR links more than 100 partners from business and research to a total of approx. 33,000 workers and Euro 4.5 billion annual turnover in Austria. Due to EU enlargement and the booming automotive production sites in the neighbouring new EU Member States Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary, ACVR has been involving the entire CENTROPE space with growing intensity in its work of recent years. Nearly 5% of all worldwide car production takes place in a radius of 300 km around Vienna; for this reason, very close, supraregional co-operation ventures with vehicle manufacturers, suppliers and organisations in the automotive environment in these countries are to contribute towards ensuring the position of CENTROPE as a business location as well as towards targeted job creation.
centrope.news: Isn’t the automotive industry one of the most highly networked sectors worldwide anyway? So why do we need regional networks?
Kuen: Global networking is primarily limited to the level of top suppliers, which are closely and directly linked to manufacturers worldwide (the so-called “OEM”, or original equipment manufacturers). Among small and medium-sized enterprises, which account for nearly 90% of all companies in CENTROPE, networking is less developed. Regional factors still have a major influence on the business activities of these enterprises. For example, when co-operating with research facilities, SMEs tend to prefer regional partners, either because there are no language problems, or because they can build on an already existing co-operative base.
centrope.news: What exactly do you mean by “regional”? Does co-operation end at provincial or national borders? And what is stronger – the competition between neighbouring regions or the co-operative potential?
Kuen: It is the prime objective of networks in the automotive industry to focus existing competencies and to initiate innovative projects. To be able to make the best possible use of synergies and enable optimised know-how transfer, ACVR is constantly maintaining close contacts with enterprises and organisations in the automotive environment, both on a national and international level. Within Austria and within the CENTROPE Region, co-operation at cluster level is already institutionalised, and ACVR is integrated into all corresponding organisations.
To be able to meet the challenges of the growing common automotive market in the CENTROPE Region, a cross-border competence platform was established to create synergy effects in training, research and production – the Automotive Cluster CENTROPE. Since spring 2007, this co-operation platform, which is jointly operated by ACVR, the Automotive Cluster Western Slovakia and the Hungarian cluster PANAC, has been supporting know-how transfer between the partner companies of the individual clusters as well as the further qualification of enterprises in the region while also co-ordinating joint promotional and assistance projects. For example, a benchmarking project is implemented together with Hungary in order to enable companies to define their status quo and plan ahead.
centrope.news: Does the automotive location CENTROPE have a unifying USP?
Kuen: Although it may sound paradoxical, the unifying USP probably lies in the multi-faceted character of CENTROPE as an automotive region: still relatively low wages, great innovative and financial strength, excellently trained manpower – and all this within the confines of a small region.
centrope.news: What are your target markets?
Kuen: For the larger CENTROPE region, we are mainly interested in forging contacts with enterprises in South Korea and France with the objective of either motivating them to establish local subsidiaries or at least to enter into co-operation ventures. After all, automobile manufacturers from France and South Korea already operate production plants in this region. But the markets of Russia and Ukraine, too, offer great potential for suppliers, which is why we are active in this direction as well.
centrope.news: In your opinion, what is the potential of the CENTROPE Region to position itself internationally as an automotive hub?
Kuen: Well, the larger CENTROPE Region is already an established international automotive hub. Slovakia alone is on its way towards becoming the fifth-largest car manufacturing country worldwide, trailing only the U.S., Japan, China and Germany. With our USP, the CENTROPE Region might almost be called unique on a worldwide scale.
centrope.news: Thank you very much for this interview!
Related links
Automotive Cluster CENTROPE
Automotive Cluster Vienna Region (ACVR)
Pannon Automotive Cluster (PANAC)
Automotive Cluster Western Slovakia
Pictures:
© Automotive Cluster Vienna Region
© PANAC
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