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North Rhine-Westphalia honors international investors

NRW.INVEST AWARD 2020 goes to companies from India, the Netherlands, Israel and France

The NRW.INVEST AWARD was presented today to four international companies by the Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Affairs, Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart, and Petra Wassner, CEO of the state-owned economic development agency NRW.INVEST, in Düsseldorf's Ständehaus. The award honors outstanding investments by foreign companies in the business location North Rhine-Westphalia. This year, the award goes to the Indian IT group Infosys, the Dutch high-tech steel producer 247TailorSteel, the unicorn OrCam Technologies from Israel and the logistics service provider DPD Deutschland, subsidiary of the French post. 

Minister Pinkwart: "North Rhine-Westphalia possesses considerable clout and visibility in the international competition for business locations, which is something we want to continue to promote. Our goal is for the best companies in the world to locate their German or European headquarters in our state. Companies that develop innovative technologies will find ideal framework conditions here. The four award winners are outstanding examples and we would like to thank them for their commitment in these difficult times with the NRW.INVEST AWARD."

"Today we are presenting the NRW.INVEST AWARD for the 16th time. Over the years, we have honored 47 companies from 19 different countries – this alone shows how convincingly North Rhine-Westphalia is positioning itself as a magnet for top-class investors from all over the world. In addition to the broad market here, they also find a large pool of available skilled workers and a research environment with competent partners for the development of future-oriented technologies," said Petra Wassner.

The award winners at a glance:

Infosys: The IT service and consulting company from Bangalore in India opened its Digital Innovation Center in Düsseldorf at the end of 2019. Here, up to 300 IT specialists bring digital transformation to life and support customers in areas such as IoT, 5G, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Infosys also promotes young digital talent in North Rhine-Westphalia: The Group has concluded partnership agreements with the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences and the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, for example, in order to organize joint training courses, research projects and scholarships.

247TailorSteel: The Dutch manufacturer of customized cut metal sheet, tubes and flashings started operating an ultra-modern, smart production plant in Hilden this year. On an area of 10,000 square meters, 45 new jobs will be created in the first year and 130 in the medium term. 247TailorSteel focuses on artificial intelligence: The company has automated all production steps so that customers can place their orders online around the clock, receive a quotation in under one minute and have the finished products delivered within 48 hours.

OrCam Technologies: The Israeli unicorn based in Jerusalem is regarded as a pioneer in the field of artificial vision and is currently building its new European headquarters in Cologne. OrCam Technologies develops camera-based visual aids for blind and visually impaired people. An attachment with a small camera records texts, people and products, analyses them with artificial intelligence and reads them out loud or describes them. The company controls its marketing, distribution and personnel management from North Rhine-Westphalia in order to further establish the product on the European market.

DPD Deutschland: Last year, the logistics group with a French parent company commissioned its largest parcel sorting center in Germany in Hamm after a construction period of only one and a half years. Upon completion, up to 200,000 parcels per day will be handled there with the help of a fully automatic sorting system. In the future, DPD Germany will create 800 new jobs in Hamm. The company is also focusing on sustainability – from low-consumption machinery to climate-friendly heating and cooling of the buildings.

North Rhine-Westphalia is Germany's No. 1 investment location, with a total of 427 new settlements and expansion projects in 2019 confirming the consistently high level of foreign direct investment. The most investment projects carried out last year were in the Düsseldorf region, followed by the Ruhr Metropolis and the Cologne/Bonn region.

A stream of the event is available here.