Whereas Indian direct investments concentrated to start with on the USA and Great Britain, Germany in particular is becoming more important as the "Gateway to Continental Europe". Hessen with approx. 250 Indian enterprises now belongs to the preferred locations of Indian investors. The companies come from very different economic sectors, whereby the emphasis is on service activities. A majority of them can be assigned to the business sectors trade, the hotel and restaurant industry and transport. In the case of corporate services, information technology enterprises play an important role in the Rhine-Main area. At present, more than 40 IT companies are located in the Frankfurt area alone.

In the study, five Indian companies in Hessen are portrayed in more detail and are surveyed concerning their respective location decisions. The factors "availability of qualified personnel", "presence of a business cluster" as well as "proximity to important customers" are mentioned as the primary motives in the result for making an investment. Centrality and good transport connections as well as internationality and cultural variety are also important factors in favor of the location. Despite the current difficult economic situation, there is an increasing interest from Indian companies to develop new markets and make investments abroad.

Particularly in the economic sectors automobile industry, logistics, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, India seems to be developing into an interesting incoming and outgoing market. This is also confirmed by the multilayered nature of the cooperation between Hessian institutions and Indian research facilities.

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