Klaus Reisinger participated at a market exploration trip to the U.S. at the World Bank and IDB from March 6 to March 9, 2011. The trip was excellently prepared (like previous ones) by the Foreign Trade Commission in Washington.

After a welcome on Sunday afternoon, and a presentation about the “Facts and figures to the World Bank and the IDB”, the actual mission started with a speech on “Austria and the World Bank – current developments / priorities and future direction” by Konstantin Huber, executive director of the World Bank. In the afternoon, individual meetings were held, during which ALLPLAN had the opportunity of speaking with the World Bank staff about ongoing and completed projects. Information of future tenders concerning energy efficiency and climate protection were of special interest.

On Tuesday, a visit was paid to the IDB, which (like the EBRD in Eastern Europe) is active in Latin America and the Caribbean. Here, too, with the IDB various discussions were held about the past projects, and, ALLPLAN was informed about future tenders. At the IDB, among others, Klaus Reisinger met with Christoph Tagwerker, an “old” Allplan former employee who has lived in Washington for several years and who now works for the IDB. The IDB also plans to invest even more in future projects in energy efficiency, renewable energy and climate protection.

The official part of the economic mission ended on Tuesday evening at a reception of the Austrian ambassador to the United States, Mr. Christian Prosl, where the Austrian Interior Minister, Maria Fekter was also present. On Wednesday Mr. Reisinger met with representatives of the IFC (International Finance Corporation, an affiliated organization of the World Bank) in order to discuss upcoming Energy Audits of our experts in Colombia. Altogether, 10 different individual meetings were held and the contact with experts of the World Bank was intensified.

All in all, it can be summarized that Washington was for ALLPAN worth to visit. From the “donor countries” there are incredible sums on the move for projects in fields of energy-efficiency, renewable energy and climate protection; this means a large market opportunity for Allplan.