What the world expects of Germany

Study on foreign direct investment in Germany

More than three million people in Germany owe their jobs to investment from abroad. This represents around ten percent of employees subject to social insurance contributions. This is the first worldwide study of the reasons foreign companies invest in Germany. Employees from "Germany Trade & Invest" investigated this and other questions in 23 countries.

US companies investing in the Federal Republic seek German expertise especially. In terms of the number of investment projects carried out by US companies, Germany ranks fourth, significantly behind the United Kingdom, China and India. The situation is different for R&D, however. Foreign subsidiaries of US companies have invested nearly USD 46 billion in R&D. The largest amount, USD 7.3 billion, was invested in Germany.

For example, market access and knowledge transfer are the main aims of Chinese investors in Germany. In its Invest in Germany handbook, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, MOFCOM, praises German quality standards as well as German consumer and industrial brands.

When it comes to greenfield projects, no country is more popular with Chinese companies than Germany. Takeovers of German companies are also prevalent: the objectives being to enter the European market and gain access to German know-how and a "Made in Germany" label. In pursuing this, the Chinese government is looking to upgrade its domestic economy.

France is Germany’s most important trading partner; however Germany is only the fifth-most popular destination for greenfield investments by the country’s companies. Approximately 4,000 French company subsidiaries currently employ 344,000 people in Germany.

Infos: Background information, trends, and statistics on the countries studied are presented in detail in the new study (only available in German), www.gtai.de/fdi