“Impatience and uncertainty” among entrepreneurs: BDI President Russwurm sees Germany as an industrial location in danger and in this context criticizes the traffic light coalition. What he demands from politics.
German industry sees increasing dangers for Germany as a business location and is dissatisfied with the course of the traffic light coalition. The country is facing a “mountain” of growing challenges, said BDI President Siegfried Russwurm at Industry Day in Berlin. “The impatience and uncertainty of many entrepreneurs are increasing.” Politicians must tackle structural reforms systematically.
The President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI) said that more and more German companies, including small and medium-sized ones, are looking to extract part of their added value from Germany. According to Russwurm, companies are increasingly overwhelmed with the current electricity prices or energy prices in global competition. The BDI expects the federal government to come up with a concept that can be implemented quickly and that will guarantee a secure supply of electricity at internationally competitive costs in the long term.
“Germany speed” not yet fulfilled
The “Germany speed” promised by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has so far not been fulfilled, with the exception of the construction of liquid gas terminals. The BDI President called for the planning and approval procedures to be speeded up, better tax conditions for investments at the location and a sense of proportion in regulation.
“Anyone who believes that the energy transition could become the nucleus of a new economic miracle underestimates that the investments will largely only replace an existing capital stock,” said Russwurm. For the time being, the energy transition will not bring any additional economic growth. The BDI expects economic stagnation for the current year. Germany falls behind in international comparison.
Scholz, on the other hand, had said that due to the high investments in climate protection, high growth rates, like those of the “economic miracle” in the 1950s and 1960s, can be expected.
Source: Stern
