Economic development agency reports sharp increases in processed projects and jobs created by foreign direct investment in 2016.

Germany’s federal economic development agency, Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI), has reported an immensely successful year of foreign direct investment into the country for 2016. The number of processed inward investment projects increased by 34 per cent to 201 in 2016, while the number of jobs created also rose from 2,623 in 2015 to 3,673. The numbers represent all projects acquired by GTAI. Over the coming months the FDI Competence Center from GTAI will also evaluate the data from all the federal states.

Digitalisation and the environment were the driving industries behind the upticks, accounting for a combined 53 per cent of projects and 46 per cent of created jobs. Sales and other business services accounted for a combined 69 per cent of planned business activities, while the largest number of jobs was created in production. China, the United States and France were the leading countries in terms of projects incoming, with China top at 26, while the leading country in terms of jobs created was the USA at 677, with France and Switzerland both close behind.

Overall, projects were registered from 71 countries, the overwhelming majority of them – 81 per cent – from Europe or Asia. “The efforts of the German government to create friendly and secure investment conditions across the country continue to be rewarded,” said Achim Hartig, Director Investor Services at GTAI. “Our strategy is to continue working on an investment environment that produces added value both for Germany and for those investing in Germany, rather than to perceive the economic value in the world as zero sum and to hoard it. The figures we are able to report today show that a large number of investors and businesses are willing to participate in this strategy. We have created an environment which promotes collaborative innovation across all sectors and celebrates free competition as a healthy influence on industry operation, and we will continue to welcome investors from all corners as a central foundation of this strategy.”