Despite Corona – 86 successful investment projects create 510 new jobs

February 03, 2025
Author: Rolf Bühler

GZA
Press release

The investment promotion agency Greater Zurich Area Ltd (GZA), together with its partners from the economic development offices, attracted 86 companies from abroad to the nine cantons of the Greater Zurich Area in 2020 – 21 percent fewer than in the previous year. In view of the global pandemic, the result is significantly better than expected. The established companies created 510 new jobs in the year under review and plan to create 1,599 new jobs over the next five years.

Speed U Up from Austria was presented at a media conference as an example of a successful investment project. The digital agency with a focus on Alpine tourism wants to establish a technology hub with 75 new jobs in the canton of Graubünden.

The global pandemic left its mark on the Foreign Direct Investment business in 2020 as well. The number of foreign companies establishing a business in the Greater Zurich Area decreased year-on-year from 109* to 86 (-21%). The established companies created 510 new jobs in the reporting year (2019: 764*; -33%). The stronger decline in the number of jobs compared to the number of investment projects is primarily explained by a single large project in the previous year with 100 jobs. The established companies plan to create 1,599 new jobs over the next five years (2019: 2,026*; -21%).

Damage limitation thanks to good work and Swiss location advantages

"In view of the global crisis, the result is very solid," GZA managing director Sonja Wollkopf Walt acknowledges. "It is particularly encouraging that these companies are creating jobs during a global crisis." This also illustrates the added value that investment promotion creates for the entire economic region, she says.

After the first half of the year, GZA had still expected a decline of thirty, forty percent or more. In addition to the slump in the global economy and the associated uncertainty, practical reasons have led to a decline in client projects and settlements – such as the complete halt in travel, physical meetings and events, or the limited availability of services needed for business incoporations. "The fact that the decline in investment projects was less severe than feared is also due to the well-filled project pipeline, the networks established abroad over the long term, and the consistent work of GZA and its partners from the economic development offices," Wollkopf explains. It also shows that the stability and reliability of Switzerland and the Greater Zurich Area are worth their weight in gold in times of global upheaval.