Cluster Development

"Strengthening strengths" – that's a slogan that is traditional to Essen. Business expertise with unique characteristics and high growth and employment potential is consistently expanded. Expertise in trade and industry, with unique features and the potential for considerable growth and employment, is continuously being further developed and clusters of regional associations are subject to ongoing expansion.

In addition to being a “headquarters city” for many groups of companies, Essen provides active networks and cluster approaches with a view to the future in the fields of creative industry, energy, water and the environment, medicine and healthcare, information and communication technology and the educational sector. Further expanding, active sectors are the construction and real estate business, chemistry, trade and commerce and the field of business-to-business services..

This industrial expertise is of enormous significance for the labour market in Essen and in the entire Metropole Ruhr. This is why the aim is to focus on grasping this potential, developing it further and establishing strong links throughout the Ruhr region.

When it comes to optimising the framework conditions for the development of these sectors of the economy, it is particularly important

• to improve local and regional co-operation between businesses with the aim of strengthening regional business relations and promoting strategic alliances;
• to establish profiles and position them as a location factor;
• to encourage a world market orientation (internationalisation);
• to strengthen technological expertise in order to systematically mobilise the endogenous potential  of the region;
• to improve the climate for start-ups; and
• to attract new businesses to the location