BROCHURE_DEV_ECO

Cross-border

economic

development

Territory portraits: economic development on different borders

Economic fabric

A quarter of the Upper Rhine’s GDP comes from processing industries,

the main sectors of which are the chemical industry and pharmaceuticals

(major international companies such as Novartis and Roche are present

in the Basel conurbation), mechanical engineering (highly developed in

the Baden region), electronics/electrical engineering (in the Baden region

and Switzerland) and car manufacturing (Daimler Chrysler in Wörth in the

Palatinate, Peugeot in Mulhouse, and Daimler Chrysler in Rastatt in the

Baden region). Building on a strong reputation in the field of life sciences,

the region has signalled its desire to specialise in biotechnologies.

Other sectors are also emerging, such as nanotechnology, photonics

and renewable energies.

Financial and business services, the hotel and restaurant trade

and particularly the real estate and transport sectors are relatively

underdeveloped. The potential for growth in these sectors is therefore

not negligible.

In this respect, the river corridor formed by the Rhine

has been the subject of new reflections regarding the development and

diversification of industrial services (logistics, etc.) as well as intermodal

connections. The territorial authorities and economic players are at

present exploring the functioning and potential of port areas. The same

is true of the bi-national airport platform at Basel-Mulhouse, with its

concentration of 130 businesses, which as a result constitutes a prime

hub of activity for the south of the Upper Rhine region.

Source: Operational programme of the INTERREG IV A Upper Rhine programme (2007-2013).

In the Upper Rhine region there are a little over 153,000 SMEs, the

great majority of which (84%) employ fewer than ten people.

Many

companies in the Baden region and Switzerland sub-contract part of

their production to SMEs in Alsace. The recent economic crisis has

encouraged an increase in the number of self-employed on the French

side of the border – as a consequence, the economic fabric of Alsace

is characterised by many very small businesses (fewer than 4 out of 10

businesses have any employees).

The slowdown in the pharmaceuticals-

chemical industry around Basel, which is highly international and was

directly impacted by the global economic crisis, had a knock-on effect

on many of the sub-contractors and on the general economic dynamics

of the region in 2011-2012. This unfavourable situation is, however, in

the process of improving.

Source:

Rhin Supérieur – Faits et chiffres 2012 (Upper Rhine – Facts and Figures 2012)

published by the offices of statistics for the “Economic Policy” working group of the French-

German-Swiss Upper Rhine Conference.

Source:

Le tissu

économique

en Alsace et dans la CUS:

évolution

2008-2013 (The economic

fabric of Alsace and the Urban Community of Strasbourg: developments in 2008-2013)

, Les

indicateurs de l’ADEUS, issue 66, March 2014.

Campus Novartis, Basel

Cross-border Project Café, Strasbourg-Ortenau Eurodistrict

Property prices are lower in France, despite a trend in the direction of

a catch-up. Planning permissions particular to German municipalities

favour the concentration of commercial activities with large catchment

areas on German territory, where prices of consumer goods are generally

lower. To set up business in the Haut-Rhin Department or the southern

Baden region is more costly due to the proximity of the Basel conurbation.

As regards households, despite the different tax and social security

structures, overall the tax burden is equivalent in France, Germany

and Switzerland.