LANSING, Mich. — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is spending the next several days in Germany on an investment mission, using some of her final weeks in office to court semiconductor, machinery and mobility companies.
It is her second trade trip to Germany this year. This year she has also taken delegations to South Korea, Italy and Switzerland. Whitmer leaves office in less than two months, when Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson takes over as governor.
Quentin L. Messer Jr., chief executive of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, is traveling with her. The delegation is meeting German government officials and industry executives with a pitch built around semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, mobility and defense.
A centerpiece of the schedule is SEMICON Europa, the continent’s largest trade event for electronics design and manufacturing, where the Michigan team plans to promote the state’s engineers and supplier base. Whitmer is also sitting in on a roundtable with VDMA, Europe’s biggest association of machinery and equipment makers, and meeting with companies that already operate in Michigan, including Siemens.
The trip began with a stop at Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the applied research group whose American operation has called the Michigan State University campus home since 1994. The university secured $20 million from the National Science Foundation in September for a new building beside Fraunhofer USA, where researchers will work on advanced chips for space missions.
German firms already have a large footprint in the state. Since 2019 they have launched 74 projects in Michigan worth nearly $2 billion combined. This year alone, RENK Group, a defense supplier, unveiled $150 million in combined spending on facilities and research tied to about 300 jobs, while Volkswagen Group of America put up $13 million to hold onto more than 900 positions in Oakland County.
The MEDC and an independent nonprofit economic development foundation are covering the cost of the mission.
From the HERE City State Desk.
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