Settlements reach pre-corona level
In 2021, the Greater Zurich Area was able to settle 125 companies in its nine member cantons. They want to create over 1,800 jobs in the life sciences and ICT sectors, for example. In particular, settlements from the USA have increased.
Company settlements are increasing again after the Corona dip. The Greater Zurich Area AG (GZA), as the location marketing organization for nine cantons, was able to settle a total of 125 companies in 2021, an increase of 36 companies compared to the first Corona year 2020. According to a statement by the GZA, 42 companies came from the USA (+20 ), 19 from Germany (+4), ten from Italy (+5) and five each from China (-6), Great Britain and Singapore.
Overall, the companies created 582 jobs in the economic area, an increase of 11 percent compared to the previous year. In the next five years there should be a total of 1843 jobs.
The ICT sectors are most strongly represented with 42 companies, followed by the life sciences with 25 companies and the machine industry with 18 and financial services with 13 companies. The life sciences companies created 235 jobs, followed by the ICT companies with 154 jobs.
However, the importance of the companies for the location goes beyond the number of new jobs. “We specifically address those companies that achieve high added value and strengthen the existing ecosystem,” said GZA Managing Director Sonja Wollkopf Walt at a digital media conference.
One of the newly settled companies is Benchling . The American provider of cloud solutions for life sciences wants to create up to 150 jobs in the Circle at Zurich Airport. The Chinese pharmaceutical company Hengrui already has its European headquarters in Basel and is now setting up a research and development site in Zurich.
The German RegTech company targens will sell its software for compliance solutions to banks in Switzerland and Liechtenstein from Schwanden GL. Ruedi Becker, the Swiss head of the Landesbank Baden-Württemberg subsidiary, was able to convince his superiors of the advantages of Glarus together with the GZA.
That pleases the Glarner location promoter Christian Zehnder. So far, Glarus has been strong in manufacturing and food production. “We want to get away from our traditional image,” he said. “When companies settle here, however, we depend on the strong partner GZA, who markets the location internationally.”
Sonja Wollkopf Walt sees it similarly: the settlement of targens strengthens the ecosystem as a whole and sends the signal that the economic area extends beyond Zurich and Zug. “In the Greater Zurich Area there is the ideal location for every company.”
The Greater Zurich Area includes the cantons of Glarus, Graubünden, Schaffhausen, Schwyz, Solothurn, Ticino, Uri, Zug and Zurich.