Austria Wirtschaftsservice Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung was established by the Austria Wirtschaftsservice - Act (BGBI. 130/2002 as amended) with effect as of 1 January 2002.

The tasks of the aws

• awarding and executing business related funding by the state
• providing financing and consulting services that are in the public interest and support the economy
  In particular, these tasks include
• awarding and executing grants and other means of financing in line with the Guarantees Act and the SME Subsidies Act
• fostering innovation and innovation consulting for the benefit of the Austrian economy
• executing aid according to the Federal Law on Promoting the Labour Market (AMFG) and procuring tasks and business of the ERP Fund
• providing and executing funding grants and other means of financing as well as acquiring business services that are passed to the company by law or winding-up Agreement
• providing consultancy services, especially to the state, the creation of recommendations for the multi-year programmes and the implementation of the multi-year programmes approved by the Federal Minister for Finance and the Federal Minister of Science, Research and Economy

The Austria Wirtschaftsservice Gesellschaft mbH (aws) is the Austrian federal promotional bank and is 100% owned by the Federal Republic of Austria. The Federal Ministry for Labour and Economy  (BMAW) and the Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (BMK) act as owner representatives.

The aws renders its services as part of its public mandate. The clients are the owners (BMAW and BMK) along with further federal ministries, federal states, public authorities and advocacy groups. The aws acts as a one-stop shop.