2023: A Year of Further Growth and Advancement of the Business Location Basel-Stadt

Dear Reader

How can an already successful business location such as Basel-Stadt develop further? Is economic development the responsibility of government in the first place? And if we agree with the latter, what means and instruments should the Office of Economy and Labour have at its disposal for application and implementation to achieve its ends?

I strongly feel that it is a worthwhile endeavour to ask these questions – and to provide insightful answers. Doing so on a regular basis this not only benefits our tax payers, but it is also in the interests of our clients and customers, first and foremost among them companies and business ventures. It is to them that we strive to offer real added value, to allow them to grow and create new, highly attractive employment opportunities in our Canton.

In our report “Strengthening Innovation Promotion 2024 to 2031» we have provided a new and shared roadmap towards this aim. And following its approval by the Parliament of Basel-Stadt in January 2024 we also have the necessary means at our command. We will bring a total of nine programmes in three designated innovation fields («Innovation in Life Sciences», «Digital Innovation» and «Sustainable Economy») to life, in close collaboration with our partners. I am particularly encouraged by the fact that the political authorities have provided us with their confidence and trust in areas where the respective economic ecosystems have yet to be developed, and where a noticeably positive economic impact can only be expected in the years to come, especially in forward-looking innovation fields such as «Digital Innovation» and «Sustainable Economy».

At the same time, I would like to use the opportunity of the release of our annual report to give you a series of examples that illuminate the nature of companies that have relocated to or have chosen to expand at their preferred business location, the Canton of Basel-Stadt. They shed light on new activities and initiatives they intend to perform and realise here, and they also demonstrate how the Canton and our partnering organisation Basel Area Business & Innovation have been able to help and offer support.

I look forward to another year in which, together with the entire staff of economic development, I have once again the opportunity to make my contribution to the attractiveness of Basel-Stadt.


Samuel Hess
Member of the Management Board & Head of Economic Affairs