The City of Bonn's Economic Development Department is once again presenting its focus topics and annual plan for 2024. Victoria Appelbe's team has identified seven topics that have an overarching strategic character and in each of which several projects or measures will be implemented by the city's Economic Development Department in 2024.
As in previous years, the department is continuing to intensively pursue the revitalization and development of commercial space, the topic of sustainable, climate-oriented business, securing skilled workers, the further development of the city center and district centers as well as the realignment of the tourism strategy.
New focus topics include international branding as a cyber security and IT location and improved management of undeveloped land. In addition to the focus topics, the annual plan also includes the annually recurring measures in the core business of economic development.
"Bonn is a leading center for cyber security in Germany. Solutions for a secure digital world are developed here. The location has a strong network of companies, scientific institutions and federal institutions in the field of digitalization and cyber security. We want to further sharpen this location profile and make it better known," says business promoter Victoria Appelbe.
Commercial space revitalization and development
On the one hand, the aim is to drive forward the creation of planning law and the development of additional commercial areas for trade and production in the city area, for example in the Buschdorf industrial estate, the planned Pützchen office and business park and the inter-municipal "Areal" industrial estate in Alfter-Nord.
On the other hand, existing industrial estates are to be revitalized, for example in the case of subsequent uses following the closure or downsizing of businesses such as those of the Boge and Stolle companies in the Bad Godesberg Nord industrial estate.
International branding as a cyber security and IT location
The aim is to position and market Bonn as a business location at local, regional, national and international level to companies, investors and employees with the aim of image and brand building, especially as a cyber security and IT location. At the same time, it is important to sharpen the profile of business development itself in its public image and at the same time increase its visibility in analog and digital media.
Sustainable, climate-oriented economy
Economic development is increasingly gearing its services towards sustainability. In 2024, a dedicated advisory and information service, a climate partnership with trade and industry and a training campaign in climate-relevant trades will be introduced from the Bonn 2035 climate plan. Furthermore, the area management for climate protection in the existing business parks and the Bonn Region Sustainability Hub project will be further expanded.
Securing skilled workers
Securing skilled workers is the central task in various sectors. The regional labor market projects Bündnis für Fachkräfte, Kompetenzzentrum Frau und Beruf and the Regionalagentur Bonn/Rhein-Sieg will be continued in close coordination. In cooperation with the regional universities, information and advice on the regional job market will be designed and offered especially for students, particularly international graduates.
Further development of city center and district centers
In 2024, the focus will be on the supervision, support and monitoring of Bonn's city center management, which is funded as part of the Innere Stadt 2.0 master plan, and the launch of a "City Center" marketing campaign. This will also involve analyzing and evaluating footfall.
Other topics on the agenda include improving the accessibility of the city center by expanding public transport in cooperation with the surrounding municipalities and promoting inner-city living. The "Culture, Tourism, Leisure, Sport Concept" in Bad Godesberg is being worked on by external contractors and is being coordinated by the Economic Development Department.
There is continuity in the support of important retail projects, the center management in Bad Godesberg and Hardtberg and in the intensive networking with the city center, city marketing and trade associations as well as real estate and location communities.
Realignment of tourism strategy
As part of the realignment of the tourism strategy, the implementation of the tourism mission statement adopted by the Bonn City Council in February 2023 will begin step by step. The tourism vision for Bonn will be implemented and the identified tourism topics, such as the political Bonn with 75 years of the Basic Law, will be communicated more strongly and potential topics such as the UN City of Bonn and the Lower German Limes World Heritage Site will be developed. The regional tourism organizational structures are also being reviewed with the aim of improving tourism marketing.
Improved management of undeveloped land
The real estate department aims to improve the management of land in economic, ecological and public welfare terms. This involves agricultural land with a total size of around 22 hectares, which is leased to 24 farms, 21 allotment garden sites, around 800 other gardens and grazing land areas, around 500 commercial leasehold plots and around 3,000 unused, very small plots.