Powerhouse Eastern Germany

"With an excellent research and development landscape, modern logistics and communications infrastructures, a well educated and adaptable workforce, and a high productivity rate (which comes at lesser cost than the western European average), investors in the new German states can profit from the advantages of western and eastern Europe.

Industries offering attractive business opportunities for international investors have established themselves across eastern Germany. The renewable energies sector is experiencing especially strong growth. For this reason, Germany’s four most important photovoltaic clusters have developed in the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia, and become magnets for foreign solar producers.

Pioneers in the fields of micro-electronics and nanotechnology have established production and research facilities in an area of Saxony that has come to be known as "Silicon Saxony." Berlin has become a high-tech research and development center. Innovative businesses are developing in Saxony-Anhalt, while one of the most important aviation clusters has been established in Brandenburg. In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern the tourist industry is booming along with numerous biotechnology companies. The highly modern automotive factories in southern Thuringia offer foreign automotive-component suppliers many profitable opportunities.

Today eastern Germany is one of the world’s most attractive locations for foreign investors. This development will continue long into the future and offers foreign companies from various industries a diversity of investment opportunities. As the German government's Commissioner for the New Federal States, I will work to the best of my ability to facilitate the quick and easy establishment of foreign companies in eastern Germany."