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State Secretary Dr. Horzetzky visits the Midwest of the USA

Düsseldorf. Dr. Günther Horzetzky, State Secretary in the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Economic Affairs, and Petra Wassner, the CEO of NRW.INVEST, paid a visit to the USA. The program included meetings with American business representatives as well as political meetings in Chicago, Illinois, Minneapolis and other cities in the Midwest. The aim of the trip from 6 to 10 July was to maintain and further develop relations between North Rhine-Westphalia and the Midwest region.

The USA is one of NRW's most important economic partners. The trading volume is 17.8 billion euros, with US direct investments totaling 16.9 billion euros. In Germany, NRW is the No. 1 investment location for American companies.

"More than 1,700 US companies have already settled in NRW and employ over 175,000 people," said State Secretary Dr. Horzetzky. "Many of the companies have brought new technologies, products and innovative processes to NRW, thereby enriching our business location."

Petra Wassner, CEO of the state-owned economic development agency NRW.INVEST, explained: "We want to encourage American companies to participate in future trends such as digitization, Industry 4.0 or medical technology and to develop business activities in NRW." To this end, the NRW delegation met with representatives from 3M, Caterpillar Global Mining, GE Healthcare and UPS. These US companies have had branches in NRW for many years. 

Press contact: ulrike.coqui@mweimh.nrw.de tel. +49 (0)211/61772-432