Düssel­dorf — For outstan­ding invest­ments and their clear commit­ment to North Rhine-West­­pha­­lia as a busi­ness loca­tion, Econo­mics and Digi­tal Minis­ter Prof. Dr. Andreas Pink­wart (photo) and Petra Wass­ner, Mana­ging Direc­tor of the state-owned busi­ness deve­lo­p­ment company NRW.INVEST, have hono­red four foreign compa­nies. This year’s NRW.INVEST Award went to the US online retailer Amazon, the British systems house Comput­a­cen­ter, the Japa­nese high-tech company Shimadzuand the Chinese auto­mo­tive supplier Yanfeng Auto­mo­tive Inte­ri­ors.

“Inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors are of great importance for our coun­try. They are at the same time important employ­ers, drivers of inno­va­tion and econo­mic engi­nes. We honor these important contri­bu­ti­ons with the presen­ta­tion of the NRW.INVEST Award”, explai­ned Minis­ter Pink­wart. “This year’s award winners make a special contri­bu­tion to raising the profile of North Rhine-West­­pha­­lia as a busi­ness loca­tion in logi­stics, the auto­mo­tive sector and digitization.”

“Our award winners come from many diffe­rent count­ries and regi­ons of the world. They show that NRW can hold its own in the incre­asing compe­ti­tion for inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors, also thanks to an active sett­le­ment policy,” summed up Petra Wass­ner, Mana­ging Direc­tor of NRW.INVEST. “Parti­cu­larly in the area of future tech­no­logy such as digi­ta­liza­tion and elec­tro­mo­bi­lity, we want to convince inves­tors of North Rhine-Westphalia’s loca­tio­nal advantages.”

Last year, the number of new sett­le­ments and expan­sion invest­ments by foreign compa­nies in North Rhine-West­­pha­­lia rose to 421, crea­ting around 9,750 jobs, parti­cu­larly in the Metro­pole Ruhr and the Aachen and Düssel­dorf regions.

The winners of the NRW.INVEST AWARD 2018 at a glance:

Amazon: The US online retailer has massi­vely expan­ded its presence in North Rhine-West­­pha­­lia in recent years. Follo­wing the start of logi­stics acti­vi­ties eight years ago in Rhein­berg and Werne, further loca­ti­ons with diffe­rent func­tions were added in Bochum, Dort­mund and Krefeld in 2017. Amazon also opera­tes a rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment center in Aachen. Pionee­ring tech­no­lo­gies are being worked on there. Further loca­ti­ons, e.g. Mönchen­glad­bach, are being plan­ned. Amazon employs around 6,500 full-time staff in NRW.

Comput­a­cen­ter: The British IT service provi­der supplies complete compu­ter networks, inclu­ding soft­ware and hard­ware, to compa­nies and public-sector clients and is one of the top-selling systems houses in Germany. Comput­a­cen­ter has been loca­ted in Kerpen for 25 years, where cons­truc­tion of a new German head­quar­ters began last year with an invest­ment of 40 million euros. The company is also leasing an addi­tio­nal 29,000 square meters in a logi­stics center to expand its confi­gu­ra­tion and logi­stics capacities.

Shimadzu: The Japa­nese company is the world’s leading deve­lo­per and supplier of analy­ti­cal instru­ments, labo­ra­tory tech­no­logy and medi­cal devices. Foun­ded in 1875, it moved to Düssel­dorf in 1968 and has had its Euro­pean head­quar­ters in Duis­burg since 1987. The Shimadzu Euro­pean Inno­va­tion Center was opened there last year: an inno­va­tive think tank that combi­nes acade­­mic-scien­­ti­­fic and tech­ni­cal know-how and deve­lops inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons speci­fi­cally for custo­mers. Shimadzu employs around 230 people in NRW.

Yanfeng Auto­mo­tive Inte­ri­ors: The Chinese auto­mo­tive supplier specia­li­zes in vehicle inte­ri­ors and is a global leader in this segment. The product spec­trum ranges from center conso­les to door panels and instru­ment panels to intel­li­gent surfaces. Since the foun­ding of Yanfeng Auto­mo­tive Inte­ri­ors in 2015, it has had its Euro­pean head­quar­ters with around 600 employees in Neuss, from where 15 other loca­ti­ons in Europe are mana­ged. In Febru­ary 2018, the company opened a new inno­va­tion center. Here, various disci­pli­nes are working on the car inte­rior of the future.