Despite the current economic crisis Germany is still Europe’s most attractive place to invest in, given that Germany is able to tackle problems better than other countries, in the opinion of international managers. This was revealed in the brand new “European Attractiveness Survey” by the Ernst & Young accountancy and consulting firm. According to the study’s ranking, Germany is the most attractive place in Europe and the sixth attractive place worldwide. In the course of the study about 800 international decision makers were asked about their opinion on the attractiveness of the European economic block. In addition, more than 200 foreign businesses were in particular asked on Germany.
Despite the economic crisis Germany defended its leading position already conquered last year. In their judgements managers stress the fact that Germany deals better with challenges posed by the crisis than all the rest of European countries.
With regard to the majority of location factors Germany did even better than last year. Very good marks received factors such as infrastructure (telecommunications as well as transportation and logistics), social climate, qualification of employees and quality of life.
37% of interviewees expect Germany’s attractiveness to grow further in the next three years. 86 % of respondents were optimistic that Germany will be able to overcome the crisis, in particular due to its innovation power and entrepreneurial spirit. Also mentioned to be decisive locational advantages were, among others, industry-specific know-how, existence of giant industrial groups as well as the stability of the banking sector.
Foreign direct investment in Germany increased last year. The number of investment projects grew by 28% in the year 2008.
As far as the international ranking is concerned, Germany came sixth in this year’s ranking. The top list is headed by China which is followed by the USA, India, Russia, Brasil and Germany. The findings of the survey also indicate a change in trend: in contrast to recent years when emerging countries gained in attractiveness, it is now Western Europe which has taken the lead. 40 % of respondents think that Western Europe is one of the leading industrial sites worldwide. In 2008 the respective figure had been 33%. For foreign investment Western Europe is the most attractive region in the world again.
Germany’s attractiveness which is appreciated by managers does not, however, fully match with figures on direct investment by foreign businesses in Europe, according to Ernst & Young. According to these figures, Germany received just 10 % of foreign direct investment in Europe last year which is significantly less than investment to Great Britain (market share: 18 %) and France (14 %). In contrast to these countries, however, the number of investment projects grew clearly by 28% last year in Germany. The number of work places created by these foreign investments almost doubled as compared to the previous year from about 6,000 in the year 2007 to 11,400 in 2008.
The complete study is available for free-of-charge download. 