Berlin Partner GmbH Performance Report

21.12.2011

Berlin is Growing – almost 7,000 new Jobs for the Capital

Today, Berlin Partner GmbH presented its preliminary report for 2011. After a slump due to the global financial and economic crisis in 2009 and the start of recovery in 2010, the performance this year has been better than ever: With the support through Berlin Partner and the service partners cooperating with investor services, 159 companies have either moved to Berlin or expanded their Berlin operations. They intend to create 6,938 new jobs and invest 355 million euros. If the four projects, which Berlin Partner has successfully enabled together with the ZAB Brandenburg Economic Development Board in our neighboring state, are included, the numbers are actually 163 companies with 7,230 jobs and 371 million euros of investments.

With these figures, Berlin Partner has considerably increased its performance of creating jobs in comparison with last year. But Berlin’s economy has made good progress in becoming more internationalized, too, and the number of private partners for Berlin’s business development agency grew to new heights. 220 partners from business and science, which support our Berlin marketing department and the Business Location Center, make up the core of the public-private network for Berlin.

Melanie Bähr, Berlin Partner’s managing director: “Berlin is growing; Berlin is becoming more internationalized. Berlin Partner supports this positive development of Berlin’s economy not only through its investor services department, but also in the area of foreign business and in marketing our location of Berlin. beBerlin considerably improved Berlin’s image. Even though the introductory campaign is ending, we want to continue with successful components like, for example, the industry campaign ‘ich bin ein berliner’ in 2012.” Bähr sees an emphasis in the coming year on Berlin’s application to become a showcase for electromobility and on bringing skilled specialists to the city: “Talent is becoming an increasing factor for location; technology already is one. Berlin can make the most of both advantages and can hold its own in the international competition for location.”

According to the assessment by sector experts at Berlin Partner, the industries of Internet/games, print, health services, medical technology and energy technology/automotive will also see positive development in the coming year.

In the investor services department, reaching out to companies that were already located in Berlin has been fruitful. Berlin Partner has contributed to more projects and more new jobs through expansion. Almost half of the new jobs are being planned by companies in Berlin with the other half coming from companies moving to Berlin.  

Business retention is also increasing in importance. Berlin Partner contributed to a total of 16 projects, which kept 4,122 jobs in Berlin. These numbers are not part of the 6,938 newly created jobs. A prominent example of retaining jobs by relocating within Berlin is Mercedes Benz: The company is leaving Potsdamer Platz but is building office space for its sales and distribution department with 1,200 jobs near the O2-World.

Examples of successful projects in 2011:

• The computer manufacturer Fujitsu Technology Solutions is building an Inside Sales Center in Berlin with 400 employees. Berlin was able to beat out Brussels and Lissabon.
• The film distributor Studio Canal is relocating its headquarters with 100 employees to Berlin. In this case, the capital was in competition with Munich.
• Amazon EU is building a customer service center with 400 skilled workers in Berlin.
• The Church Development Service (EED) and the Social Welfare Organization of the Protestant Church in Germany will merge in 2012 to become the "Evangelisches Werk für Diakonie und Entwicklung (Protestant Agency for Diaconia and Development)." With the merger, 500 employees from Bonn and Stuttgart will follow their jobs to Berlin.
• The third largest manufacturer of tools, the Chinese Shenyang Machine Tool Group (SYMG), will build its European headquarters via its subsidiary Schiess GmbH in Berlin and will open early 2012.

Berlin Partner’s foreign business department made Berlin’s business landscape more international by organizing 15 joint stands at large trade fairs, four company delegation trips and the Asia-Pacific-Weeks. The foreign business experts facilitated 3,323 business contacts for Berlin companies, together with the Business Immigration Service. Here, foreign trade promotion is closely linked with sector clusters and supports their expansion abroad. An example for this was the successful cooperation with HealthCapital Berlin-Brandenburg (HCBB) in organizing a delegation trip for health sciences companies in January 2011 to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. The Enterprise Europe Network at Berlin Partner und Berlin Partner Brussels, Berlin’s business representation in Brussels, advised Berlin companies and institutions on all questions regarding the EU and the European market.

The introductory campaign for the umbrella brand beBerlin was planned by the Senate from the beginning for four years and will end, for now, at the turn of the year. beBerlin used its time well to strengthen both the feeling of identity and the pride the Berliners have in their city while positioning Berlin well internationally. beBerlin supported countless events in Germany and abroad, won many new partners and has tangibly improved Berlin’s image. Top international business leaders have a growing affinity for Berlin, as studies by TNS Infratest have shown in 2007 and 2010. After the most recent study, 70 percent of those questioned from 12 countries could imagine living or working in Berlin. Forty percent even think specifically of opening a location in Berlin in the next 5 years. The campaign also collected more than 900 ambassador stories and has more than one million fans on facebook.

Berlin’s business world is uniquely engaged in the city’s business development. 173 private companies supported our marketing department this year as Berlin-Partners with more than four million euro. There were another 30 partners from Berlin’s science community. The Business Location Center has 31 private partners, while the initiatives “Service in the City” and eMO are currently supported by 14 partners each.

Here you will find additional statistics and material relating to the press conference