More than two million people live in the Lower Rhine region. The neighbors are the Ruhr area and the state capital Düsseldorf to the east, the Cologne/Bonn region and the Benelux triangle around Aachen to the south, and the Netherlands to the west. More than 650,000 employees work in around 120,000 companies, producing goods and services worth around 63 billion euros annually. The gross value added reaches a value of around 65,000 euros per employee.
The region's economy is primarily commercial. The core sectors are logistics, mechanical engineering, chemicals, energy, agribusiness, electrical engineering as well as textiles and clothing, as well as tourism.
The foundation of the economic structure is formed by medium-sized companies, including many family businesses that have grown over generations. But size also matters in the Lower Rhine: More than 20 of the 250 companies with the highest sales in North Rhine-Westphalia are based in the region, and numerous global corporations have branches here.
Industry networks along the value chains and connections to a practice-oriented university landscape keep the innovation engines running. One of the many positive consequences: The companies here are creative, innovative and ready for the global market. The export quota is over 50 percent, goods and products from the Lower Rhine can be found on all five continents. The Lower Rhine is everywhere, so to speak.
But there's also good things right outside the door. 16 million consumers can be reached within a radius of 100 kilometers, and even 40 percent of the EU population can be reached within a day's truck journey.
The cities of Krefeld and Mönchengladbach, the districts of Kleve, Viersen, Wesel and the Rhine district of Neuss as well as the Middle Lower Rhine Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) have come together under the umbrella brand of Niederrhein GmbH.
