immo!nvest – Die Plattform für Standorte und Immobilien

Tag: Neuansiedlungen

  • Aargau reapplies for membership of the GZA

    Aargau reapplies for membership of the GZA

    The canton of Aargau has applied for renewed membership of the GZA. According to the cantonal state chancellery in a press release, rejoining the regional marketing organisation would offer the best effect in terms of presenting Aargau as a business location abroad at the lowest risk. The alternatives considered were the establishment of an own presence abroad and the expansion of existing marketing activities.

    The canton of Aargau was already a member of the GZA from 2007 to 2010 as part of a trial membership. However, the membership was not extended as the regional location promotion “focused on tax-optimising companies at the time”, “for which the canton of Aargau was of no interest”, according to the press release. However, the GZA is now “focussing on innovative sectors that are already strongly represented in the canton of Aargau”. The canton of Aargau hopes to attract new companies from sectors such as life sciences, energy technology, mechanical engineering and digital technologies by rejoining the GZA.

    “We don’t want growth at any price, but rather to attract companies with high added value, good jobs and innovative products,” said Dieter Egli, Mayor of the Canton of Aargau, in the press release. “For this to succeed, we must be able to address companies directly in the foreign target markets.” To this end, the GZA aims to publicise Aargau as a business location abroad and find companies interested in setting up in Switzerland. The Canton of Aargau’s location promotion organisation will then suggest specific potential locations and clarify further questions.

  • Switzerland attracts more foreign companies

    Switzerland attracts more foreign companies

    The location promotion of the Confederation, regions and cantons can look back on another positive year, explains the Conference of Cantonal Economics Directors ( VDK ) in a statement . Once a year, it compiles statistics on the number of new foreign companies settling in Switzerland. According to the latest VDK survey, a total of 282 foreign companies settled in Switzerland in 2021. This exceeded the previous year's figure by 62 settlements.

    The jobs created by the settled companies in the first year of operation increased year-on-year by 20 percent to 1396 jobs. With 3566 jobs forecast for the third year of operation, the high level of 2020 could be maintained, writes the VDK.

    Most of the companies that came to Switzerland in the year under review are active in the life sciences and ICT sectors. In terms of origin, around half of the new settlements come from the USA, Germany and France.

    The focus on future technologies set in the current strategy 2020-2023 of the national location promotion has proven itself so far, the VDK explains further in the communication. She also emphasizes the "successful cooperation" between the official Swiss organization for export promotion and location promotion, Switzerland Global Enterprise , and its representations abroad, which are run as Swiss Business Hubs, with the regions and cantons. According to the VDK, this cooperation is organized in such a way "that the Swiss location can be optimally marketed abroad as 'Team Switzerland'".

  • The Zurich economic area remains attractive for new settlements in the corona crisis

    The Zurich economic area remains attractive for new settlements in the corona crisis

    Together with partners, the location marketing organization Greater Zurich Area AG (GZA) was able to relocate 86 companies despite the corona crisis, which corresponds to a decrease of 21 percent compared to the previous year. According to the GZA, the new settlements have already created 510 new jobs in the region, and 1599 new jobs are to follow in the next five years. GZA published these figures at a digital media conference. On this occasion, GZA managing director Sonja Wollkopf Walt commented: “In view of the global crisis, the result is very solid.” This is due to a well-filled project pipeline at the beginning of the crisis, but also to long-term networks abroad and the sustainable work of GZA and the partner of the location funding. According to Walt Wollkopf, the crisis has digitalized the work of the GZA even more: Existing instruments have been expanded and others newly developed.

    Almost half of the companies located here come from the information and communication technology (ICT) and life sciences sectors, with biotech accounting for the lion's share. Machine industry and financial services take third and fourth place. According to GZA, the origin of the companies by world region reflects the course of the pandemic in 2020. The US remains the leader with 20 companies, but the number of projects here has almost halved. With 14 settlements, Germany remains almost at the previous year's level and there are even two more projects from China than in 2019.

    The successful ICT settlement Speed U Up stands for the digitization boost caused by the pandemic and the strengths of GZA in the digital sector. The digital agency from Austria with a focus on alpine tourism founded a joint venture in Chur GR with the Swiss media company Somedia in October 2020. A technology hub with 75 new jobs is to be created. Somedia CEO Thomas Kundert said: "For us, the joint venture is a further step towards the growth market of digital services." This is playing an increasingly important role in the media company's strategy.

    Sven Thoenes, member of the Board of Directors of Speed U Up Suisse AG , emphasized: "In the Zurich economic area we find excellent talents to further develop our technologies in the areas of speech recognition, artificial intelligence and augmented reality." U-Up customers like Zermatt Tourismus benefit.