“Can become the engine of change”
Scholz declares East Germany a boom region
6/11/2023 4:33 p.m
Around 400 guests from business, politics, science and society are expected to attend the three-day business conference in Bad Saarow, Brandenburg. Chancellor Scholz is also coming. He sees a boom region in the east. However, the economic development is different.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz sees great potential for the economy in East Germany. “East Germany’s economy is booming,” said Scholz before the start of the East German Economic Forum in Bad Saarow, according to the organizers. “There is actually hardly any future technology, hardly any growth industry that is not already at home here in East Germany or is currently looking for a new home here.” The region could “become an engine of change,” added the Chancellor.
Around 400 guests from business, politics, science and society are expected to attend the three-day business conference in Bad Saarow, Brandenburg. Scholz wanted to give a speech at the official start of the meeting on Sunday evening. According to the organizers, the conference is about, among other things, the conditions for industrial companies, the shortage of skilled workers and global location competition.
Fewer innovations in the East
Economic development in the East varies: Last year, the economy grew faster in Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt than in the federal government as a whole. Lower rates were achieved in Thuringia and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In terms of gross domestic product per capita, the five eastern German states are still in the lower ranks in a national comparison.
As far as innovations are concerned, things are looking much worse in the East. According to a study by the employer-related Institute of German Economy (IW), spending on research and development, workers in the so-called MINT area, company start-ups, patent applications and the degree of digitization are the lowest in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are also in the bottom places.
The IW cites the academic qualifications of the workforce in the fields of mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology (MINT) as an important factor for the innovative power of a region. Accordingly, Hamburg achieves the highest value here, followed by Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. At the lower end of the scale are Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt and, at the bottom, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.