MittelstandsWiki

Whereas employees in major companies who are sent abroad can generally ask their colleagues for advice, staff working in small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) quite often have to collect all the necessary information on their own. In order to help them in this respect there is a new web site called iXpatriate.de which went online at the beginning of December last year. This site was developed by the professorship for marketing at the Dresden Technical University and is sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs through means made available by the European Social Fund. +++

The expenditure by the 27 EU member states (EU27) on research and development (R&D) accounted for 1.84 percent of the EU´s GDP in 2005 which is the same value as for the year 2004. In real terms, however, expenditure rose by 1.5% in the period from 2001 to 2005, as was reported by the European Statistical Office (Eurostat). +++

A new study by the GFK research institute on the consumption of food organicly produced has revealed that in 2006 ninety percent of all German households at least once bought organic food. For the period from January to September 2006 expenditure on organic food also increased by 17 percent as compared to the same period in 2005. Given that the organic food range was broadened in food retailing the customer catchment area was also increased. Everything indicates an organic food boom. +++

EU legislation on international money transfers has lead to major cost cuts for bank clients. Thus, the costs for a money transfer of 100 Euros which had amounted to 24 Euros prior to new EU directives now on average stand at just 2.50 Euros. Furthermore, the new rules have provided incentives for banks to invest more in the development of EU-wide money transfer infrastructure.

A new and to high-tech entrepreneurs very interesting information tool has gone online recently: Erawatch. This information platform provided by the EU Commission provides up-to-date information and analyses on the development of research systems and research policies of all EU member states as well as information on the latest documents relating to research policies, research programmes, sponsoring facilities, research results and other important indicators such as expenditure, publications and patents. +++

Hardly believable: the special diplomatic charme of Vienna which already in the old times of monarchy made Vienna an international stage for diplomats still works today – even in cyberspace. The negotiating talent of people from Viena was demonstrated in the course of an international experiment in which 141 students from the universities of Hohenheim, Vienna and Tel Aviv negotiated a fictitious business deal. The experiment was made in order to further develop a software called Negoisst. +++

Now it has been officially confirmed: strong economic growth in Germany is not something just fancied, but a fact. According to calculations by the Federal Statistical Office, GDP adjusted for price was 2.5% stronger in 2006 than in the previous year. The seasonally adjusted figure even reveals a growth rate of 2.7% which is the second best value in the entire decade since 1996 (top year was 2000 with +3.2%). +++