Austria

The Republic of Austria is a Central European country bordered with Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland and Lichetnstein. The capital is the city of Vienna, but the country is divided into nine states, each with its own parliament and a certain level of autonomy in the matters of culture, social care, youth and nature protection, hunting, building, etc.

Austria is one of the richest countries in the world, with a living standard that was ranked as the 19th, globaly. It is an EU member, and a member of all the major international organizations and alliances.

The territory of Austria covers more than 83 thousand sqare kilometers, inhabited by 8.5 million people. Due to the presence of the Alps, only one third of the total terrain is below 500 meters above the sea level - two thirds are high mountains. The highest point is almost 4 thousand meters. Thanks to that fact, winter tourism is one of the most developed segments of Austrian economy.