Germany remains an attractive location despite Nokia closedown

In the eyes of international investors Germany is one of the most attractive business locations worldwide. This was revealed in recent surveys among international managers as well as by studies carried out by renowned consulting firms. Encouraging figures published today demonstrating the sustainable economic growth in Germany also testify to a positive and competitive economic climate in Germany. Thus, small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) should not be influenced by Nokia´s decision.

Yesterday Nokia announced to close down the production of mobile phones in Germany by the middle of this year. Michael Pfeiffer, managing director of Invest in Germany which is the marketing partner of the German government regrets Nokia´s step and added: “The Handelsblatt magazine just recently published the findings of a survey carried out among top which confirm that Germany remains the most competitive business location in Europe and that it ranks second worldwide being runner-up to China only. Germany is particularly successful in fields such as research and development, the qualification of its workforce and logistics. According to Ernst & Young these factors are the most important reasons for investments.”

Mr. Pfeiffer said that offshoring and outsourcing were not recent phenomena. These once again demonstrated that by outsourcing production important investment in research and development employing highly qualified people was in turn made possible. And international and German companies, according to him, bank on this combination. They deliberately make decisions in favour of Germany as a hightech location. Positive figures published yesterday by the Federal Statistical Office also underline the encouraging investment climate in Germany. These figures showed that investment by companies increased by 8.4 percent in 2007 which is a very significant increase. GERMAN

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