Record result for Chinese company settlements in NRW

NRW.INVEST takes stock at the beginning of the year

Düsseldorf, 12 January 2017 – Last year, the state-owned economic development agency NRW.INVEST acquired 94 investment projects from the People's Republic of China for North Rhine-Westphalia. These investment projects have created around 640 new jobs in the first step. In total, the number of Chinese companies in NRW has now risen to more than 1,000. This makes North Rhine-Westphalia the No. 1 investment location in Europe for companies from the People's Republic of China.

"Many of the companies value North Rhine-Westphalia as an innovative future location and logistics hub in Europe. With optimal location conditions, we offer investors optimal prerequisites to launch their European business," explains Petra Wassner, CEO of NRW.INVEST.

The projects from the People's Republic of China are distributed to varying degrees around the cities and municipalities of North Rhine-Westphalia: The Düsseldorf region once again led the field with 63 new settlements, followed by the Ruhr Metropolis with 10 and the Lower Rhine with 6 new settlements.

The more than 1,000 companies from the People's Republic of China in North Rhine-Westphalia have their headquarters along the Rhine in particular. Düsseldorf is in first place, followed by the Lower Rhine region, the Cologne/Bonn region and the Ruhr Metropolis. More than two thirds are involved in the trade and distribution of products from the fields of mechanical engineering, industrial plants, household appliances, ICT, automotive, healthcare and metal production. About 15 percent of the companies offer B2B services. Nearly 50 companies produce and/or research and develop in NRW.

Taking companies from the whole of Greater China (People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan) into account, there are 1,100 firms altogether. Four investment projects came from Hong Kong in 2016.

Investments from the People's Republic of China in NRW in 2016