Invest in Catalonia secured 27 new investment projects in the first half of 2012

Invest in Catalonia ensured 27 new investment projects in catalonia to date in 2012, representing a total investment of €170.58 million, the creation of 1,522 direct jobs and guaranteeing the continuity of a further 1,657 jobs.

74.07% of these 27 projects entail outside investment, mainly from japanese, french, american and german firms.

as regards sectors, the 27 confirmed projects belong to the automotive industry (18.5%), chemical industry (18.5%), ict (14.8%) and agrifood industry (11.1%).

in 2011 invest in catalonia gave support to 38 investment projects, with a total investment of €239.90 million, the creation of 1,882 jobs and guaranteeing the continuity of 1,888 other jobs. 2011 was in fact the year invest in catalonia secured the highest amount of projects ever despite the negative economic climate. in the opinion of josep moragas, acc1ó’s managing director, these results demonstrate that both catalonia and barcelona are still a key competitive destination for incoming investment and, furthermore, generate significant investor attraction.

the first half-yearly results are clearly ahead of those for the same period in 2011, the year that as already mentioned was, in fdi terms, the best out of the last five. both spain’s and catalonia’s economic rebuilding process and the cost adjustments seem to be, in the eyes of many investors, improving the region’s mid-term competitiveness. furthermore, aspects such as catalonia the being the world mobile capital until 2017 represent an additional source of new investment projects.

success stories

of all the companies that invested in catalonia in the first six months of the 2012, special mention must be made of a project that confirms the idea that multinational firms continue to see barcelona as the ideal location for shared service centres on a supranational level. in this case the japanese firm ricoh has invested in it’s new shared serves centre in sant cugat del vallés for the emea region, with an investment of €7 million and the creation of 150 jobs. with this project ricoh concentrates its administrative, sales, billing and accounting functions for its southern european offices.

another of the more significant projects has been developed by the german company henkel, which recently announced it’s plan to invest in three new r&d laboratories for high performance adhesives and sealants for the automotive, electronic and aviation industry. these research laboratories will be set up in collaboration with the barcelona autonomous university (uab) and the technological centre leitat, and represent an investment of €5 million and the creation of 50 jobs. this investment is an example of catalonia’s special relevance in terms of obtaining knowledge-intensive projects.

last but not least, mention must be made of the recent investment of the company going green in sustainable mobility, another of catalonia’s key business drivers. this investment project means an electric motorcycle manufacturing and assembly plant will be built and 50 jobs will be created.