The most important sectors are transport materials and machinery. These two make up 28% of the industrial added value.

Hydro-electricity is the most important natural resource. The production is extremely good, 56.6 billion kWh. There is no longer any nuclear production, the Austrian nuclear station was closed down. The energy market will have to be liberalized, but the differences of opinion may mean that the care of the restructuring of this sector, which is still not very competitive, is left to the Germans and the French.

Other sectors

Tourism is one of the biggest employers in the country and generates a yearly income of 80 billion francs.
Austria is a major tourist centre, attracting 17.352 million tourists in 1998.
It enjoys a double tourism : skiers in the winter, with its many mountain ranges, and nature lovers, hikers and cultural tourism in the summer.

Austria has developed an economic network with most of the central and eastern European countries and because of its geographical position is a good regional base for other western companies to work with these countries.
The Austrians are mainly involved in industry and services in central and eastern Europe : there are 7000 companies in Hungary, 4000 in the Czech Republic, 1500 in Slovakia, etc.

These companies are well established in the countries and profit from favourable conditions.
A wide network of banks and insurance firms have been developed in the zone and the Vienna stock exchange is now the financial centre for eastern Europe.

France is the seventh biggest investor in Austria, with 3% of the total.
The 54 biggest Austrian subsidiaries of French companies make a turnover of 61 billion schillings, employ over 16,000 people and are divided between production (17%), services (64%) and distribution (19%).
Some of the French companies in Austria :
Accor - Peugeot - Renault -Mondial Assistance - the Société Générale - the BNP -the Crédit Agricole-Indosuez -Lafarge - Saint Gobain - Alstom - Legrand - CEA - AXA - Coface - Rhône-Poulence - Roussel Uclaf - Pasteur Mérieux Connaught - the Trois Suisses - la Redoute...