The Bavarian Representative Office in San Francisco
About us
The state of Bavaria’s San Francisco office was established in 1999 and is headed by Dr. Lucie E. Merkle. Cooperating closely with the state of Bavaria’s Ministry for Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology and primarily with Invest in Bavaria, the office supports companies based in the U.S. states west of the Mississippi to partner, locate and prosper in Bavaria. The office provides information and location services tailored to the needs of individual companies and their industry sectors. In addition it facilitates cross border R & D projects and exchange programs involving both regions’ business and technology communities. The decision to establishthe office in Northern California was made to take advantage of the dynamism shown by Silicon Valley, and from the close ties existing between the business communities in Bavaria and the San Francisco Bay Area.
U.S.A. in Bavaria
The geographic area covered by the San Francisco office includes the world’s and the United States’ strongest growing regions. California on its own has the world’s eighth largest economy. Its universities and high-tech sector are benchmarks of world excellence, as is the state’s film industry.Also states like Washington, Colorado, Arizona and especially Texas have a highly dynamic and competitive industry with extensive know-how in high tech and an interesting industry profile. For these reasons, it’s not surprising that the states west of the Mississippi are all among Bavaria’s major technology development and trading partners and sources of foreign direct investment. U.S. West Coast companies such as Google, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Hewlett Packard, Texas Instruments and Intel are longtime and successful members of Bavaria’s business community.
Bavarian presence in the USA
The list of Bavarian companies situated in the U.S. states west of the Mississippi taking advantage of the region’s resources--companies and people turning out innovative technologies and high-impact designs--is long, and includes such global players as Siemens, Allianz, ARRI and BMW, plus a large number of SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises). A large part of Bavaria’s approximately €23 billion in international trade with the USA is derived from the Western United States.