With an annual GDP of €444.8 billion, Bavaria is a strong, healthily growing region with an economy larger than 20 of the EU’s 27 member states. Bavaria’s GDP per capita amounts to €35,530, which is well above Germany and the EU average (as of 2008). This high income means Bavaria is a market with correspondingly high purchasing power.
Promotion agency
Invest in Bavaria is the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs’ central coordinating body for investors in the region. Its international team offers confidential assistance with setting up new businesses or expanding present facilities in Bavaria. Invest in Bavaria provides information to help find suitable sites and arranges contacts with government agencies, local partners and networks.
Invest in Bavaria offers a one-stop service point to help with everything from the initial steps in setting up a business operation and identification of optimal locations to arranging contacts with potential employees and customers. Invest in Bavaria provides business data and information on public support and incentive schemes and facilitates initial communication with relevant public administration departments, industry and business associations and key networks.
Bavaria’s business community shows a great diversity of size and sector. It is comprised of such global players as Allianz, Siemens, BMW, Audi, EADS, Adidas, Puma and MAN—and of the large number of SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and skilled trades operations providing the global players with the supplies and services helping give them their competitive edge.
All of the state’s businesses profit from the large number of purchasers of their products and services based in the state—and from the state’s network of innovation, which is behind the creation of these advanced, high-performing items.
This network is responsible for Bavaria’s being at the leading edge in all sunrise sectors, with these including ICT (information and communication technologies), the life sciences (and especially biotechnologies and medical engineering), and energy and environmental technologies.
Its service sector constitutes an especially strong part of Bavaria’s business community. The sector’s main components are finance (Bavaria has Germany’s largest insurance community, and the country’s second largest banking one); tourism (thanks to the state’s being one of the world’s favorite places to visit, shop and meet); trade fairs and congresses (Munich and Nuremberg are world top-ten venues) and B2B services.
A basic factor boosting all of these companies is the state’s infrastructure—the high-capacity, ultra-reliable transport, telecommunication and energy grids making the state an integral part of world markets and systems. Like the state’s education system and R & D network, these grids have been the objects of considerable and sustained investment by the state. This investment has produced a top-ranked system of secondary, post-secondary and occupational education, plus R & D institutes turning out innovations which have changed the world. Key figure: more than 3% of Bavaria’s GDP goes to R & D.