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BREMEN
GEOGRAPHY AND DEMOGRAPHY
Located in the north-west of Germany, Bremen is the smallest of the 16 German Länder. It comprises the cities of Bremerhaven and Bremen, their population amounting to a total of 662,100 inhabitants. The regional area is 404 square km.
INFRASTRUCTURES
Bremen is a harbor city with a compact layout and offers cennections to the major arterial routes in Europe. There is a convenient and comprehensive network of interconnected waterways, road, rail and air routes. Moreover there are motorways, ports, high-speed ICE trains, an international airport close to the city center and an intelligent traffic network.

As multimedia location, Bremen also has its own "data highway" – the region´s own broadband network which is linked to the German research network.

ECONOMY
The economic area of Bremen is characterized by a total working population of approximately 330.000 people. Due to the dramatic structural changes in the 1980s and 1990s when the great decline of the shipbuilding and steel industry caused a deep economic crisis in the region, Bremen suffers from a relatively high unemployment. Nevertheless, compared to other macroeconomic indicators to other German regions Bremen has by far the highest share of export regarding the gross domestic product (43%).

Today, among others measures Bremen performs an Economic Action Plan and Innovation Fund in order to support technology transfer and finance the strengthening and extension of the RTD infrastructure as well as the foundation of young-technology oriented firms. The results of this long-run oriented policy can be seen in the high acceptance and attractiveness of the technology park facilities in general and in particular its incubators, such as the Bremen Innovation and Technology Center.

The future task of all actors involved in the innovation policy in Bremen will be to support these young innovative structures and companies allowing the region to catch up with other regions in terms of SMEs international competitiveness and SMEs contribution to regional product and job creation. The regional GDP is 22.389 Mill. Euro (2002).

LABOUR MARKET
The total number of employees is 386,500. Agriculture does not play a visible role in the Land because of its entirely urban structure. Employment is divided into two main sectors: 24.1% in industry and 75.5% in services.

The spectrum of business activities ranges from high-tech, special-purpose shipbuilding to the automobile industry and aerospace; from a modern food, beverage and tobacco industry to satellite-assisted logistics and electronic stock exchange; and from TIME (Telecommunication, Information, Multimedia and Entertainment) and environmental engineering to laser technology. The city is home to the second-largest DaimlerChrysler plant in Europe, where the C-class, the CLK Coupé and the Roadster are produced. The unemployment rate is 16,6% .

DATA RELATED TO REGIONAL STRUCTURAL FUNDS MECHANISMS
REFERENCE PERIOD: 2000-2006.ERDF objective applicable for the Region (1, 2):Objective: 2.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
The education/research structure of the Land is well developed. Its two universities and three "Fachhochschulen", with more than 25,000 students, provide a dense network of higher education possibilities.

Bremen International University (which co-operates with Rice University, Houston) and the planned Space Academy (which offers hands-on training in the Spacelab) are examples of future projects aimed at optimising the existing highly qualified human resources available in Bremen.

DATA RELATED TO REGIONAL PROGRAMME OF INNOVATIVE ACTIONS
Region RPIA - Regional Programme of Innovative Actions - Strategic theme:The programme aimed to shape a development perspective for the region of Bremen focussing on advanced mobile information and communication technologies.

Actions exploited the potentials of these emerging technologies and stimulated the development of a regional “mobile information society” in the field of “e-EuropeRegio” the information society at the service of regional development. The projects was accompanied by stimulating and awareness actions in order to improve the co-operation or regional actors. The programme concentrated on three fields of activities:

  • Mobile solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises;
  • Mobile health care;
  • Mobile services for citizens.

The related actions promote integration of regional activities, support for deve-lopers, producers and users and different awareness actions. The European Commission has approved ¤ 1 million for a regional programme of innovative actions for the region of Bremen in Germany. During the period 2002-2003, the European funding will attract ¤ 1 million in further investment from the public sector, and Euro 0.03 million from the private sector, creating total resources of Euro 2.15 million.