catalonia is the fourth region in all europe for foreign investment attraction in 2015

Barcelona, april 4, 2016.- catalonia is the fourth region in all europe in terms of foreign investment attraction in 2015 according to the financial times’ fdi markets. according to this source, foreign investment in catalonia reached 5,224 million euros, the highest figure on record and only bettered by a region in the united kingdom, scotland and another region in russia. 

with this investment volume, catalonia climbs from the 16th position it held in 2014 to this 4th place in 2015, placing itself before countries such as turkey or ireland. in fact, last year catalonia was the top western continental region in europe in terms of foreign investment attracted, in front of places such as the netherlands and france. 

a record number of projects handled by the catalan government 

the catalan government agency responsible for foreign investment attraction, catalonia trade & investment, put 112 investment projects into practice for multinational firms in catalonia during the 2014-2015 period, representing an investment of 637.4 million euros. this is the two-year period with the highest figure of projects managed since the agency was established in 1985. in these two years, investment by these companies represented the creation and conservation of 10,152 jobs. 

the profile of investing companies 

between 2014 and 2015, 38.4% of the foreign investment projects managed by catalonia trade & investment were greenfield, in other words from multinationals without a prior presence in catalonia. the second type of investment (22%) came from multinationals that already had some presence in catalonia, while 19% were expansion projects. 

special mention must be made of the investments of multinationals in the ict area (25.8%), a sector generating wealth and qualified jobs and with a high growth potential, clearly reflecting the driving force of mobile world capital for the catalan economy. also relevant are the investments in automation (15%), services (8%) as well as in food and drink, electronics, biotechnology and chemicals (5.3% respectively) and metallurgy and textile (4.5%). in terms of the value chain, in first place we find industrial-manufacturing projects (36.6%), followed by services (22.3%) and headquarters (12.5%).

the country leading the list for foreign investment projects in the 2014-2015 period is the united states with 16.9% of the total. it is followed by france (11.6%), japan (8%), china (7.2%), germany (5.3%) and switzerland (5.3%).