Data collection template and questionnaire

Regional profile: Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westfalia)

DEA Nordrhein-Westfalen

DEA1 DUESSELDORF DEA2 KOELN DEA3 MUENSTER DEA4 DETMOLD DEA5 ARNSBERG

GDP per head (2000)

DEA Nordrhein-Westfalen: 25.008 €³⁵³ (average of old Länder incl. Berlin: 26.426 € and excl. Berlin: 26.637 €)³⁵⁴

Germany³⁵⁵: 24.700 €

EU-15 = 100; DEA = 108,6 DEA1 =121,2; DEA2 = 115,5; DEA3 = 87,7; DEA = 105,5; DEA= 99,7³⁵⁶

GDP at current prices/in Million € (2000)

DEA Nordrhein-Westfalen³⁵⁷: 450.137

Germany³⁵⁸ : 2.030.000

EU-15³⁵⁹: 8 524 371

Employment rate (2000)

DEA Nordrhein-Westfalen: 8.194.000 persons = 68,5%³⁶⁰ (15-64 years) (German average = 68,8%)

DEA1 DÜSSELDORF: 2.502.200³⁶¹

DEA2 KÖLN: 2.028.800³⁶²

DEA3 MÜNSTER: 1.118.000³⁶³

DEA4 DETMOLD: 986.500³⁶⁴

DEA5 ARNSBERG: 1.686.200³⁶⁵
Unemployment rate (2002, as of 30.06.)

DEA Nordrhein-Westfalen: 9,9 %³⁶⁶ (Nordrhein-Westfalen: 9,2 %)³⁶⁷ (German average: 9,8%; West 7,9%, East: 18,0%)

DEA1 DÜSSELDORF: 10,0 %³⁶⁸

DEA2 KÖLN: 9,2 %³⁶⁹

DEA3 MÜNSTER: 9,8 %³⁷⁰

DEA4 DETMOLD: 9,7 %³⁷¹

DEA5 ARNSBERG: 10,6 %³⁷²
Technological standing (5 point scale): 3,5-4
Strengths [short description]³⁷³

With a population of 18.010.000 inhabitants and in terms of economic output, Nordrhein-Westfalen (NRW) is Germany’s largest state. The state is the largest conurbation in Europe (ca. 40 % of the EU population live in a 500 km radius around Düsseldorf). 22.3% of the German GDP is generated in NRW. A GDP of 459.6 billion € (2001) places NRW 14 on international comparison (in front of Australia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden or Belgium). In 2001, 23 % of all available income in Germany is generated in Nordrhein-Westfalen and 21 % of all Germany's gainfully employed work here. The surface area adds up to 34.081 km². The infrastructure is well developed. It includes 6 international airports (Düsseldorf (Germany’s third-largest passenger airport), Mönchengladbach, Cologne/Bonn (Germany's number two airfreight centres behind Frankfurt), Dortmund, Münster/Osnabrück and Paderborn) and dense network (30.000 km) of expressways, roads and railroads. The rail network (6.100 km) is also well developed (incl. ICE) (830 mio. passengers per year) with about 678 railroad stations or stops. Europe's largest inland port in located at Duisburg and the state has 700 km waterways.

NRW is Germany's strongest export state. 18 % of goods exported from Germany are "Made in NRW". NRW’s economic structure is a well-balanced mix of 'classic' and future-oriented sectors. The represented sectors range from advertising to yarn production, the range of products from abrasives to zoom lenses. The biggest sector is the manufacturing industry (23% of German industry generate 22% of German industrial sales and about 2.220 companies in NRW specialise in finished metal goods) and the biggest employers in NRW are the chemical industry and the mechanical engineering sector, followed by the electrical engineering and electronics industry, the metal products industry, and the food industry:

• 
  ‘Ruhr’ region: hard coal, iron and steel industry, automotive industry, electrical
  

engineering, installation construction, environmental technology and recycling

• 
  ‘Rhineline’: chemical industry, automotive industry, administrative centre, financial and
  

insurance services, media industry, logistics

• 
  Aachen-Düren region: brown coal, paper industry, electronics
  
• 
  West Lower Rhine: textile and clothing, food industry
  
• 
  Bergisch-Märkisch region: high-specialised iron industry
  
• 
  ‘Siegerland’: rolling mills mechanical engineering
  
• 
  ‘Ostwestfalen-Lippe’ region: Clothing industry, furniture and printing industry
  

As to the relevance of the chemical and the plastics and rubber industry in NRW 2001 about one-in-four of Germany's plastics or rubber processing machines were produced on assembly lines in NRW. NRW has gained international importance in this sector due to global players like Bayer, Degussa and Continental. Some 20 companies in NRW also specialise in plastic and rubber recycling. Düsseldorf's International Trade Fair for Plastics and Rubber Products - the "K" - is an important meeting point for the industry.

Another major sector of NRW industry is the automotive industry. Companies like Ford and Opel have sites here. Others have important distribution centres, such as Toyota, Renault, Chrysler, and Volvo. The American company Alcoa Automotive Structures & Technology manufactures its aluminium chassis for Audi in Soest. Ford has established its European Research Centres here, and Toyota established its Formula 1 centre in Cologne in 2000. Also the clothing industry with its high-end products and Düsseldorf as a recognised fashion design centre is a relevant business sector. Moreover, the printing and publishing industry is strong in NRW. Five of Germany's Top Ten book shops are in NRW. In Alsdorf, Warner Music manufactures hundreds of thousands of CD, CD-ROMS and DVD's for worldwide distribution. NRW is home to the Bertelsmann company. The "Handelsblatt" produced in Düsseldorf is the world's biggest economic and financial newspaper in German.

The variety of businesses in the service and manufacturing sector, international trade exhibitions (‘Popkomm’, "CPD" (fashion), "photokina", "boot" or "drupa" (print)), and the transportation infrastructure are very well developed. 6 international airports and a dense network of motorways, roads and railroads as well as Europe's largest inland port in Duisburg add up to this infrastructure. 22 of Germany's 50 largest companies have their headquarters in the state. Leading companies in NRW are e.on (energy), RWE (energy), Metro (trade), Deutsche Telekom (telecommunications) and ThyssenKrupp (steel, machinery). Over the last few years, NRW's share of foreign direct investment has risen consistently to more than 45 %. NRW is one of the leading German media locations with centres of the TV and radio sector (e.g. WDR, RTL, VIVA and VOW located at Cologne), (business) newspapers and the art scene. The multimedia Bertelsmann Group has it’s headquarter in Gütersloh. With the Deutsche Telekom’s headquarters as well as all German operators of cellular phone networks the state is also home to the telecommunication industry. The region is a major centre for the insurance industry, for finance, and for retail and trade.

Europe’s highest concentration of research and higher education institutes can be found here since the early 1970ies. 5 of Germany's 10 largest universities are located here, among them Germany's largest university, the University of Cologne. About 500.000 students registered at the 16 universities, 37 public institutes of higher education in NRW. Moreover 11 Max-Planck institutes, 13 Fraunhofer installations, 8 Leibniz-institutes (formerly blue-list-institutes), 23 state-sponsored research institutes, 62 special fields of research, 69 technology centres and 31 technology transfer institutions are located here. Thus, there is also a wide range of research disciplines and subjects of research. Micro-technologies here and new technologies are developed here. NRW has meanwhile attained a leading role in the areas of life science and biotechnology.

In 1999 the state held rank 6 in investment per employee in the processing industry.³⁷⁴

Companies: Aldi Einkauf GmbH, Babcock Borsig Power GmbH, Bayer AG, BASF Coatings Aktiengesellschaft, Bertelsmann Aktiengesellschaft, Bertelsmann Arvato Aktiengesellschaft, Bertelsmann Lexikothek Verlag für Bildungssysteme GmbH, Coca-Cola GmbH, DAEWOO, Degussa AG, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Deutsche Post AG, Deutsche Telekom AG, M. DuMont Schauberg Expedition der Kölnischen Zeitung GmbH & Co. KG, EMI Electrola GmbH, e.on AG, Ericsson GmbH, ExxonMobil Chemical Central Europe GmbH, FALKE-FASHION, Ford-Werke AG, Fuji Photo Film, General Motors, Hanjin Shipping, HARIBO GmbH & Co. KG, Henkel KgaA, Hewlett-Packard, Hochtief, Humana Milchunion eG, Huvis, KarstadtQuelle AG, Klöckner-Werke Aktiengesellschaft, Lekkerland-Tobaccoland, LG Electronics, LG Technology Central Europe, Metro AG, Miele & Cie. GmbH & Co., Mitsubishi Electric, NIXDORF GmbH & Co. KG ,Nokia GmbH, Reinhard Mohn GmbH, Dr. August Oetker KG, PEACOCK AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT, Procter & Gamble, RAG AG, Rewe-Gruppe, Ruhrgas AG, RWE AG, Sammi Steel, Seidensticker GmbH, Sony, Stinnes AG, Klaus Steilmann GmbH & Co. KG, STOLLWERCK AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT, Tengelmann, ThyssenKrupp AG, Toshiba, Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt GmbH, Vorwerk Co. KG, Warner Music Manufacturing Europe GmbH, Warsteiner Brauerei Haus Cramer GmbH & Co. KG, Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitungsverlagsgesellschaft E. Brost & J. Funke mbH & Co., WINCOR.
Weaknesses [short description]

For a long period the relatively high level of unemployment was above the German average. The modernisation of the economic sector is not yet completed, even if investment rose in recent year. In the university landscape the trend to run to a deficit in the spatial and personnel view is still not broken. Financially the sector is chronically underdeveloped.

Evolution in last decade [short description]

In the last 10 years alone, the gross added value of the service sector grew by 44%, while that of company-related services rose by 57%. Employment has been growing (1992: 8.030.600, 2002:8.344.100) and the same holds true for the GDP/per capita (1992: 21.648 €, 2002: 25.690 €).³⁷⁵

The successful (and sometimes painful) economic transformation (from resources related industry/ energy producing industry to services) changed the entire economic structure of the state. Thus, the contribution of the secondary sector (industry) to gross added value was almost 56% in 1970. By 2001, the secondary sector in NRW fell to 29%, while the tertiary sector rose from 42% (1970) to 70% (services) and the contribution of the primary sector meanwhile became less than 1%. The relationship between industry and services was therefore reversed and also the relevance of future oriented industries increased and the transfer between research and industry is gaining in importance for the structural change.

Mining – once the backbone of NRW's economy – is constantly declining in importance and today only ranks 14^th economic sector. Traditionally, the largest sectors in terms of employment are mechanical engineering (225.000 employees) followed by the metal processing industry (194,000) and the electrical engineering/electronics sector (159.000). In the past also a centre of coal and steel, NRW is now largely influenced by its media and service sector that make up two thirds of the gross value added. Companies such as Bayer, Deutsche Telekom, ThyssenKrupp and the media giant Bertelsmann are based in NRW. Nevertheless, the state economy is still characterised by SME and of young and innovative companies. Especially biological engineering and medical technology as well as logistics have experienced a real start-up boom.

Further Indicators

Public revenue and spending (mio €)³⁷⁶

	2001	2002
Revenue	49.160,8	48.558,4
Spending	54.929,5	54.551,8