The Zurich economic area remains attractive for new settlements in the corona crisis
In the pandemic year 2020, the number of newly settled companies in the Zurich economic area fell less than expected. A total of 86 companies from abroad have chosen one of the nine cantons of the Greater Zurich Area.
Together with partners, the location marketing organization Greater Zurich Area AG (GZA) was able to relocate 86 companies despite the corona crisis, which corresponds to a decrease of 21 percent compared to the previous year. According to the GZA, the new settlements have already created 510 new jobs in the region, and 1599 new jobs are to follow in the next five years. GZA published these figures at a digital media conference. On this occasion, GZA managing director Sonja Wollkopf Walt commented: “In view of the global crisis, the result is very solid.” This is due to a well-filled project pipeline at the beginning of the crisis, but also to long-term networks abroad and the sustainable work of GZA and the partner of the location funding. According to Walt Wollkopf, the crisis has digitalized the work of the GZA even more: Existing instruments have been expanded and others newly developed.
Almost half of the companies located here come from the information and communication technology (ICT) and life sciences sectors, with biotech accounting for the lion's share. Machine industry and financial services take third and fourth place. According to GZA, the origin of the companies by world region reflects the course of the pandemic in 2020. The US remains the leader with 20 companies, but the number of projects here has almost halved. With 14 settlements, Germany remains almost at the previous year's level and there are even two more projects from China than in 2019.
The successful ICT settlement Speed U Up stands for the digitization boost caused by the pandemic and the strengths of GZA in the digital sector. The digital agency from Austria with a focus on alpine tourism founded a joint venture in Chur GR with the Swiss media company Somedia in October 2020. A technology hub with 75 new jobs is to be created. Somedia CEO Thomas Kundert said: "For us, the joint venture is a further step towards the growth market of digital services." This is playing an increasingly important role in the media company's strategy.
Sven Thoenes, member of the Board of Directors of Speed U Up Suisse AG , emphasized: "In the Zurich economic area we find excellent talents to further develop our technologies in the areas of speech recognition, artificial intelligence and augmented reality." U-Up customers like Zermatt Tourismus benefit.