Messestadt Riem



	Munich: Europe's booming business base 'Greater Munich is one of the world's three best bases of high-tech development.' There's a lot of evidence to substantiate this ranking, which was made by the Financial Times in September, 2000.

	Munich has Europe's largest TIME ("technology, information, media and entertainment") community, reports a recent study conducted by the local chamber of commerce. Much of this community is foreign-owned. The number of non-German high-techs which have set up production, distribution, development and logistics-based subsidiaries in Munich came to 598, as of December, 2000. The largest total of any community in Europe, this figure was up 15% over the last 12 months. Moreover, Munich is strongest in the cutting edge sectors of the TIME industry.

	"Munich is, to put it plainly and simply, Germany's Internet capital," concluded an authoritative report published by Focus, Germany's news weekly. To come up with this verdict, the study compared the number of E-companies, Internet positions advertised, corporate Websites and private E-mail addresses in each of Germany's hundred largest cities. Munich was the best-of-all-categories winner. The city's 'number one in Germany' ranking also stemmed from its performance in two other key categories: the amount and efficiency of public sector support provided by the city to its high-tech sector, and the quality of R & D being carried out at local universities and institutes.

	These facts also helped greater Munich to record another first place. A ranking published in a March, 2000 edition of business weekly WirtschaftsWoche proclaimed that Munich had the highest technological output and efficiency of operation of any of Germany's 97 business regions. Case in point: biotech. Ten years ago, greater Munich's biotech cluster was an also-ran in Germany. Today, it's the largest in the country, and heading towards that same position in Europe as a whole, reports Ernst & Young. The core of this biotech cluster is formed by 100 ELISCOs (entrepreneurial life science companies) and by La Roche Diagnostics, Aventis, Bristol Meyers Squibb and other pharmaceutical giants. All told, 12,000 persons work in the cluster.

	A final number one: Munich is the most attractive city in Germany. That's the verdict of a poll, conducted in autumn 2000 and published by IWD (the authoritative economic reporting unit) of Germany's gainfully employed. It wasn't only the great job prospects - Munich has the lowest rate of unemployment of any medium or large-sized city in Germany - that caused the persons contacted to rank Munich number one. Munich is exceedingly green and low-rise. Complemented by the lakes and mountains spreading to its south, the city's physical beauty goes hand-in-hand with a richness of cultural life and folklore. These qualities are what attract millions of persons to Munich every year. More than seven million overnight stays in 1999. That was an all-time best for Munich's tourism industry. Non-Germans accounted for 42% of these stays, a figure ranking the city number one in Germany in this category. Also of this attraction and activity has made Munich Germany's largest market for commercial real estate. In 1999, 660,000 square meters of commercial space were rented out in Munich. That was an all-time record for any city in Germany. It went hand-in-hand with another"best-in-the-country": the lowest rate of vacancy for commercial real estate: 1.5%. To make sure that Munich's booming economy has enough room to grow, the municipal government has launched no less than 10 projects of urban redevelopment. Back to top of page