Back to foreign investors in Germany: From 2007 to 2011, fDi Markets registered a total of over 3,550 investment projects from almost 3,500 foreign companies. This puts Germany in fifth place worldwide as the most popular investment location. The most important countries of origin for projects are the USA, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. ZVEI and GTAI emphasize the broad sector distribution of foreign investment projects: the ICT (information and communication technology) and software sectors received the most investment. This was followed by the automotive and mechanical engineering sectors and financial and business services with 15 percent each.