More than 20,000 foreign companies have already invested in NRW and control their German or European activities from here. These include global concerns such as 3M, BP, Ericsson, Ford, Huawei, QVC, UPS, Toyota and Vodafone. They make NRW the No. 1 investment location in Germany. Foreign companies have thus become an important employer in the state, providing jobs for about one million people.

Top places in the "fDi - European Cities and Regions of the Future 2020/2021" Award

Both the figures and the survey results confirm NRW as the No. 1 investment location: North Rhine-Westphalia is one of Europe's leading regions for business and investment – this is confirmed by the "European Cities and Regions of the Future 2020/2021" ranking of fDi Magazine, a subsidiary of the Financial Times Group. In the European location comparison conducted every two years, North Rhine-Westphalia once again demonstrates its strengths in numerous categories. For example, the state took first place in the "FDI Strategy" category for attracting foreign direct investment and second place in the overall result of the most sustainable "Large" or "Western European Regions" with more than four million inhabitants behind the Paris region. The location also does well in the overall ranking, coming in third behind the Paris and Dublin metropolitan areas.