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Foreign investment in the city multiplies

Barcelona attracted foreign investment worth over 100 million euros in 2021, five times more than in 2020, and doubled the number of new jobs generated the previous year with 885. Over half of investment projects are in the tech and communications sector.

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06/01/2022 - 11:31 h - Employment and jobs Ajuntament de Barcelona

Investment attracted by the Directorate for Economic and City Promotion, along with the Business Landing Service operated by Barcelona Activa’s Business Support Office, landed 13 investment projects: 11 new ones and 2 reinvestments in projects already under way and now taking on a new dimension.

Out of the thirteen projects in question, 54% are from outside the European Union. The UK, the USA and Italy account for six projects, with two each, while the rest correspond to Argentina, Belgium, Estonia, France, Holland, Switzerland and China.

Notable projects investing in Barcelona in 2021 include:

  • PepsiCo: looking to lead the corporate digital transformation with a new Global Digital Hub which should create 400 jobs over the next two years.
  • Costa Cruceros: opening a new Customer Hub to centralise its international strategy for attracting customers and generating loyalty. In 2021 alone this project generated over 100 jobs.
  • Veriff: the Estonian scale-up develops software against the supplanting of digital identity. It has created a product development and engineering centre, generating 50 jobs.

62 new projects for 2022

This year will see work go into 62 projects, mainly from outside the EU (65%) and with a significant volume from Argentina (15%) and the UK (13%). A large number of investment projects are linked to information and communication technologies (29%) and business services (16%).