Gerhard Weis sincerely rewarded

While celebrating his 70th birthday in the premises of the company EPAMEDIA in the 1st district of Vienna in the beginning of October Gerhard Weis, the vice-president of the Alps-Adriatic Centre for Cross-Border Co-operation and the former procurement director, was awarded a prize.
Each year the Alps-Adriatic Centre honours meritorious persons and establishments for their efforts in the field of cross border cooperation.
Gerhard Weis, who is also Einspieler's laureate, was rewarded specially for his extreme engagement in Austrian national minorities and for creating successful connections among the companies in the Alps-Adriatic region. The AACC president Bernard Sadovnik stressed that Gerhard Weis is not only the true friend of Austrian minorities, furthermore he was with his activity- through tens of years- forming a recognisable Austrian roll in the spirit of European ideology.
Gerhard Weis thanked for the reward at the event of a nice celebration with the music and delicacies from Goriška Brda (Slovenia) and added modestly that such a behaviour should be self-understandable.
The mayor of Brda Franc Mužič emphasised the European dimension of friendship and good neighbourhood contacts between Austria and Slovenia.
At the celebration to the honour of Gerhard Weis also the head representative of the Slovenian embassy in Vienna Nataša Kovačič, the general director of the company EPAMEDIA dr. Heinrich Schuster, the businessman and the previous candidate for the Austrian Kanzler dr. Josef Taus and numerous prominent friends from Carinthia, Slovenia and Vienna were present.

Cross border cooperation in the sense of win-win for both sides

After the access of theAlps Adriatic regions-Republic of Slovenia and Republic of Italy- to EU , the possibilities for cooperation on all sectors of economy are becoming better and better. Some Austrian and also Carinthian companies came to the Slovenian market after the Slovenian independence in 1991 and successfully positioned themselves. The Alps-Adriatic Centre for Cross-border Co-operation in Klagenfurt (AACC) supports actively for years the establishing and intermediating of the contacts among political authorities on the highest and also on community levels in Slovenia and companies on Austrian side of the Alps on the other side.

The president of the AACC, Bernard Sadovnik who is the top ranking in this organisation, explains:” As a member of the Slovenian minority and due to the facts of my bilingual language knowledge and the knowledge of political circumstances, it means for me an open door to the neighbouring South European countries. The establishment of the contacts connected with the overcoming of the fear from the recent history is the basis for successful cooperation in the last years. With lobbying the AACC managed to cooperate in several significant projects- for instance the thermal resort Goriška brda. “The outlooks for the realisation of the mentioned project in the value of 40 Millions Euros are substantial. The construction part of the project is planned to be done by the Austrian group Por.”

Bernard Sadovnik said in his interview for one of the leading Austrian daily newspapers Die Presse that - with the support of the AACC- on the field of outdoor advertisment and commercial activities company Epamedia -with the headoffice in Vienna-was founded in Ljubljana.

In reference with the idea of the Governor of Carinthia Gerhard Doerfler about the world skiing championship at the Three borders point Bernard Sadovnik sees the necessary initiatives for the forming of new and modern infrastructure in this region which is attractive for tourism. “In the frame of this project the mutual transport and economy concepts could be reached.”

Photo: View over the idylic landscape Goriška brda where the thermal resort is planned to be built