Foreign-Owned Companies in the Mittlerer Niederrhein Region Contents | Publishing Information
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mittlerer Niederrhein Krefeld | Moenchengladbach | Neuss | Viersen www.mittlerer-niederrhein.ihk.de International AT HOME: Foreign-owned companies in the Mittlerer Niederrhein region CONTENTS | PUBLISHING INFORMATION Contents | Publishing information 2 Key facts – the essentials at a glance 3 The Rhineland – an economic heavyweight 4 The Mittlerer Niederrhein region 6 In great company – business communities 8 Published by: Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mittlerer Niederrhein Authors | Editors: Manfred Meis I Meis-Medienservice, Nettetal Roland Meißner, Wolfram Lasseur, Jörg Raspe, Lutz Mäurer, Gregor Werkle I CCI Mittlerer Niederrhein Editor-in-chief: Roland Meißner Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mittlerer Niederrhein Managing Director International Department Phone: +49 2131 9268 540 I Fax: +49 2131 9268 549 Email: [email protected] Translation: United Language Services, Linsburg Design: 360 Grad Design, Ulrike Wiest, Krefeld Printed by: Scan+Proof elektronische Druckformen GmbH, Krefeld As at: March 2012 All the information provided in this brochure has been collated and drafted with the utmost care. Chamber of Industry & Commerce Mittlerer Niederrhein does not provide any guarantees in respect of the accuracy and completeness of the content nor is it liable for any interim changes. Reprints, even just extracts, are permitted only if the source is acknowledged. Specimen copy requested. 2 AT HOme: Foreign-owned companies in the Mittlerer Niederrhein region KEY FACTs – THE ESSENTIALS AT A GLANCE Out of a total of 78,790 corporate members of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) Mittlerer Niederrhein, 7,162 or 9.1 percent are foreign-owned. Or put another way, 1 in 11 businesses is owned by a non-German or has non-German majority shareholders. Capital resources and business people originate from 121 different countries ranging from A as in Austria to U as in USA. The country league table is headed by Turkey (1,357 companies), well ahead of Poland (916) and the Netherlands (767). Preferred industry sectors that these foreign businesses operate in include retailing/trading (2,504 companies), hospitality (1,193) and other B2B services (662), such as HR placement, facility management and the renting, leasing or hiring of movable items. Foreign-owned businesses are increasingly committed to providing vocational training to young people; the percentage share of apprentices now matches that found in all companies that provide training. AT HOme: Foreign-owned companies in the Mittlerer Niederrhein region 3 THE RHINELAND – AN ECONOMic HEAVYWEIGHT Fig. 2 Nationality of non-German inhabitants in the Rhineland The Rhineland, which we briefly present here, lies at the heart of a region between Germany’s former Turkey capital, Bonn, and the Netherlands. It is part of Ger- 209,120 | 26.8 % many’s largest state, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). With 6.7 million inhabitants it is one of Germany’s Italy most populous regions, accounting for 8.2 percent 56,793 | 7.3 % of the total population. The Rhineland is an economic heavyweight, too, generating more than nine percent Poland TOTAL 44,932 | 5.8 % (230 billion euros) of Germany’s economic output. 779,124 This is appreciated by business people from across the Greece world, with 28.7 percent of foreign direct investment 39,907 | 5.1 % in Germany (about 188 billion euros in 2006) going into North Rhine-Westphalia. Evidence of this can be Netherlands seen everywhere in the Rhineland. This is especially 27,338 | 3.5 % true of NRW’s state capital, Duesseldorf, where a Other 401,034 | 51.5 % miniature version of Tokyo has evolved on the conti- nent of Europe. Ninety percent of all Japanese com- panies in North Rhine-Westphalia are headquartered in Duesseldorf and the neighbouring districts of Mett- Source: Non-German Population of North Rhine-Westphalia as at 31 December 2009 Landesbetrieb Information und Technik Nordrhein-Westfalen (IT.NRW), mann, Neuss and Viersen. They are primarily involved Statistics Unit, Duesseldorf 2010 in trading and distribution, but also in manufacturing, as are the other 38,000 foreign-owned companies Fig. 1 Position of the Rhineland and its CCI districts that have located to the Rhineland. There are good within North Rhine-Westphalia reasons for this. Businesses encounter an excellent in- frastructure here, including an extensive motorway North Rhine- and railway network, efficient ports on the Rhine and Westphalia two international airports (Duesseldorf and Cologne/ Bonn). The neighbouring countries of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France are just a stone’s throw away. Modern data communications round off the Rhineland’s favourable infrastructure offering. Uni- versities, colleges and research centres in Aachen, Bonn, Duesseldorf, Cologne, Krefeld/Moenchenglad- IHK District bach and Juelich work closely with business and in- Wuppertal-Solingen- IHK District Remscheid IHK District Duesseldorf dustry, which also operate research centres of their Mittlerer Niederrhein own. Duesseldorf and Cologne are important exhibi- tion centres with unrivalled trade shows. Quality of IHK District Cologne life is good, too, with extensive culture offerings, var- ied scenery and warm and friendly locals. Rhineland- IHK District ers are a cosmopolitan lot who have been welcoming Aachen IHK District Bonn / Rhine-Sieg people from elsewhere since Roman times. Some 37.5 percent of the population of NRW and 8.2 percent of the total population of Germany live on the Rhine be- Rhineland tween Bonn and Krefeld. This also includes around 780,000 foreigners, who account for 11.6 percent of the total population (NRW average: 10.5 percent). 4 AT HOme: Foreign-owned companies in the Mittlerer Niederrhein region In the nationality league table (Fig. 2) Turks are well of Italians and Greeks and later Turks to the Rhineland out in front (209,000 / 26.8 percent), followed by began in earnest in 1955 when the German govern- Italians (57,000 / 7.3 percent), Poles (45,000 / 5.8 ment sought to recruit ‘guest workers’, with migrant percent), Greeks (40,000 / 5.1 percent) and Dutch workers from Poland following after the collapse of (27,000 / 3.5 percent). These five ethnic groups the COMECOM economic bloc. The Rhineland is an account for almost half of all non-Germans living in important part of the German economy, as its the Rhineland, although it has to be said that Dutch 420,000 companies account for 11.5 percent of people have lived in the region for a very long time, commerce. Nearly 10 percent (38,789) of these particularly in the areas close to the border. The influx companies have a ‘non-German background’. Fig. 3 Infrastructure in the Rhineland Rotterdam Rhine Weeze A 57 Duisburg Antwerp A 40 E 34 A 52 Krefeld A 44 Duesseldorf Netherlands A 52 Neuss Moenchengladbach A 59 A 1 Belgium A 46 Bergisch-Gladbach Brussels E 314 A 44 A 61 Cologne E 25 A 4 Aachen A 555 Brussels Maas A 59 A 3 Bonn E 40 A 565 A 1 AT HOme: Foreign-owned companies in the Mittlerer Niederrhein region 5 THE MiTTLERER NiEDERRHEIN REGION Fig. 4 The Location of the Mittlerer Niederrhein region within the Rhineland Krefeld District of Viersen Mittlerer Niederrhein region Moenchen- gladbach Rhine County of Neuss Rhineland Located between the Rhine in the east and the Dutch its counterpart in the Venlo/Roermond region in the border in the west, the CCI district Mittlerer Nieder- Netherlands. An extensive motorway network with rhein incorporates the cities of Krefeld and Moenchen- two routes to the Netherlands, efficient ports on the gladbach, the Rhine County of Neuss (including the Rhine, rail freight links in all directions, and the nearby city of Neuss) and the district of Viersen, which has Duesseldorf International Airport and the regional airport at Moenchengladbach provide quick and easy Tab. 1 Industry sectors access to the markets on the region’s doorstep. in the Mittlerer Niederrhein region Almost 135 million people live within a radius of 500 kilometres. Total Exports turnover as a The industry of the Mittlerer Niederrhein region Industry sector in million € percentage is dominated by chemicals, mechanical engineering, Chemical industry 7,130 69.7 Metal production and fabrication 4,760 49.6 electrical engineering, steel, aluminium, lignite mining Food and feed industry 3,430 23.8 and textiles. The food, beverage and tobacco sector Engineering 3,380 75.3 has also played a significant role for as long as anyone Manufacturing of devices 1,070 52.2 can remember. Exports account for some 50 percent for electrical production of production – little wonder, then, that cosmopoli- Manufacturing of metal products 714 35.6 tanism is second nature in the Mittlerer Niederrhein Manufacturing of 707 39.9 region. It is therefore only logical for companies from data processing units, all over the world to use the Krefeld-Moenchen- electronic and optical products gladbach-Neuss urban triangle as a gateway to the Paper industry 646 34.2 rest of Germany and Europe. The Mittlerer Niederrhein Repair and installation of 400 14.3 region has a population of 1.24 million, of which 10 machinery and equipment percent are non-German. The region is also home to Textiles industry 297 63.8 78,800 businesses, of which 7,200 are foreign-owned (9.1 percent). A total of 121 different nationalities are Source: Landesbetrieb Information und Technik Nordrhein-Westfalen (IT.NRW), Statistics Unit, Duesseldorf 2010 represented in the district. 6 AT HOme: Foreign-owned companies in the Mittlerer Niederrhein region Fig. 5 Nationality of non-German inhabitants of the CCI district Mittlerer Niederrhein The nationality league table is led by Turkey with a headcount of 35,600 (28.7 percent), well ahead of Poland (9,500 or 7.7 percent), Italy (7,000 or 5.7 per- Turkey 35,571 | 28.7 % cent), Greece (7,000 or 5.6 percent) and the Nether- lands (6,200 or 5.0 percent).