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Evaluation of the
federal grants to GTAI

Client

Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection

Year

2022


GTAI (Germany Trade and Invest) supports German foreign trade with numerous measures – providing neutral industry and country information, and specific information events that have proven effective and economical.

GTAI – a pillar of German foreign trade

Prognos evaluated the work of Germany Trade and Invest (GTAI) for the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection for the periods of 2017 to 2020. The conclusion – the GTAI serves as an important lever for the ongoing promotion and further development of German foreign trade. It uses its funds in a goaloriented, effective, and meaningful manner.

The GTAI provides reliable, neutral information about target countries to businesses that want to export or expand abroad. Equally, it promotes Germany as a business location abroad and supports foreign companies in establishing themselves here. It thus improves the overall reputation of Germany as a business location. Both German and foreign companies take advantage of the services offered by GTAI and place their trust in the information they provide. Their commitment primarily improves the skills and know-how required for foreign engagement and thus also secures and creates jobs.

The evaluation revealed development opportunities for the GTAI in the following fields:

  • Sharper profile, especially in relation to the target group
  • Optimisation of monitoring
  • Focusing on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
  • Showing customer value more clearly
  • Increased digital information processing, use of big data
  • Awareness of their role as a think tank and strategic authority
  • More specific objectives

Our mission

The GTAI does not act alone in promoting German foreign trade, but operates in an environment of numerous players, such as trade associations, chambers, guilds, federal ministries, and state governments. Moreover, the results of their actions depend heavily on global economic developments. This makes the work of the GTAI complex and not always easy to measure clearly. On the other hand, the GTAI is 100 percent government owned, so it is financed with taxpayers' money. Prognos therefore had the task of examining the efficiency and effectiveness of the GTAI measures in relation to their four core tasks:

  • Export promotion
  • Investor recruitment
  • Location marketing
  • Promotion of the new federal states

Our approach

We conducted an expost evaluation with quantitative and qualitative analysis steps. These included:

  • Desk research
  • An online survey
  • A short survey of the numerous foreign missions of the Federal Republic of Germany
  • Guided interviews with key stakeholders
  • Context analysis of foreign agencies

Links and downloads

To the final report in German (BMWK)

Project team: Dr Thomas Stehnken, Fabian Malik, Thomas Danneil, Jan Reichert, Victor Wichmann 

Last update: 22.05.2023

Do you have questions?

Your contact at Prognos

Dr Thomas Stehnken

Principal

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Fabian Malik

Senior Project Manager

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