"The early birds will be part of the economic recovery"

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Federal Chancellor opens the Hannover Messe "The early birds will be part of the economic recovery"

A huge opportunity for Germany: the transformation towards climate neutrality was a major driver for employment and growth, said the Federal Chancellor in his opening speech at the Hannover Messe. 

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Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Joko Widodo, President of Indonesia, on a tour of the Hannover Messe.

Federal Chancellor Scholz and Indonesian President Widodo were able to gain a first-hand impression of new technologies during their joint tour of the trade fair.

Photo: Federal Government/Imo

Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz opened the Hannover Messe on Sunday together with Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Indonesia is this year's partner country for the world's largest industrial fair. Over 4,000 companies will be showcasing their technologies and innovations at the fair, which will take place from 17 to 21 April 2023. More than 150 Indonesian exhibitors, ranging from start-ups to large industrial corporations and industrial parks, will be represented. Industry associations, ministries and state institutions are also participating.

Strengthening economic relations with democratic partners

The Federal Chancellor said he was especially pleased that Indonesia was this year's partner country at the Hannover Messe. Indonesia is situated in the middle of the Indo-Pacific region, between China, India, Oceania, and the Americas, which means that it has an important role to play: "If we think about growth markets and diversification and are focusing our political and economic antennae much more on the Indo-Pacific region then there's no way around Indonesia."

The plan, going forward, is to consolidate the existing good economic ties between Indonesia and Germany even more. The Federal Chancellor is firmly committed to a swift and successful conclusion of the free trade agreement between the EU and Indonesia, the negotiations for which began in 2016. He said this would "immediately create a common economic area with a population of well over 700 million". 

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One of the world's first partnerships in the equitable transition towards the use of renewable energy sources had been concluded with Indonesia, said the Federal Chancellor. "Indonesia's aim to completely de-carbonise its power sector by 2050 is ground-breaking." The G7 countries, he added, would be mobilising tens of billions of dollars of government and private investment over the next few years to help Indonesia in its transition away from fossil energy sources. In a few days, Indonesia will also be joining the Climate Club, whose aim is to guarantee fair competition as well as common rules and standards.  

A tour of the fair with the Indonesian President

As the Federal Chancellor toured the trade fair together with the Indonesian President on Monday morning, he was able to gain an insight into technologies and solutions for a networked and climate-neutral industry. "Many entrepreneurs are already committed to achieving this," he said: "Many of the products on show here have the potential to become real bestsellers all around the world." One example that the Federal Chancellor looked at is a system that creates biomass using algae and CO2 filtered from the air. "Not only is this an extremely important means of improving our climate," said the Federal Chancellor after his visit, "but also of creating the products that we need."

Another exhibit featured an state-of-the-art water filtration plant that uses intelligent sensors to treat polluted water in a highly efficient manner to achieve the degree of purity required for such processes as electrolysis. "Both of these products conserve our resources and contribute to the fight against climate change and to the circular economy," said the Federal Chancellor:

"I was particularly impressed by the second example of the Heroes of the Future, a trade fair stand built entirely by apprentices. Today," he continued following his visit to the trade fair, "we will be discussing the skills shortage and the challenges it poses for industry and for the economy. What this trade fair shows is that we have some great young people."

Scholz on de-risking rather than decoupling

"All over the world," Scholz explained, "countries are in the process of reducing risk dependency and broadening their trade relations." Rather than "decoupling" from individual markets, he said, what was needed was an intelligent, forward-looking "de-risking" strategy. When it came to diversification, he added, politicians and businesses in Germany were pulling in the same direction, whereby raw materials were an important area of concern, particularly in the context of the transformation towards climate neutrality and digitalisation.

"Not only will it create greater local prosperity if we are able to establish more processing stages at locations where the raw materials occur naturally," he explained, "but at the same time we will ensure that we have more than just one or two suppliers going forward. However," he added, "in and of itself this will not be sufficient to ensure a secure supply of raw materials, which is why we also want to boost the extraction and processing sectors in Europe and, wherever possible, in Germany."

"Moving from talk to action"

One component of what we need to achieve the great industrial transformation towards climate neutrality, said the Federal Chancellor, was free and fair trade, resilient supply chains, and sufficient raw materials. "The other component is that we are now really getting to grips with making the transformation happen here in Germany – moving from talk to action.

The transformation represents a huge opportunity for our country," Scholz continued, adding that it was the number one driver of employment and growth. "However," he cautioned, "there are three prerequisites for this potential economic upswing to happen: first, clear, reliable, specific goals to enable people to plan their investments with certainty; second, 'turning up the heat', i.e., the aforementioned 'German speed'; and third, enough skilled workers in Germany to make it happen: we are making progress in all three areas."

Rapid and unbureaucratic

Germany intends to be one of the first climate-neutral industrialised countries by 2045. The plan is to generate 80 percent of our electricity from renewable energy sources by as early as 2030, and to do so in spite of the increasing demand for electricity. "To achieve this," the Federal Chancellor explained, "we will need a binding roadmap, which includes intermediate steps and a monitoring system. We've already shown how rapidly and unbureaucratically Germany can move when we built the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals along our coasts. From now on, this is the benchmark we will use for everything from the construction of energy plants, storage facilities, and transmission grids, to building railways, bridges, and roads."

Meeting the demand for skilled workers

For the transformation to result in a major economic upswing, our country needed skilled workers, Scholz explained, which is why the Federal Cabinet had launched the most comprehensive reform to secure skilled labour ever seen in Germany. It was important, he said, to fully exploit the domestic potential and facilitate the immigration of foreign skilled workers.  

Scholz expressed confidence that these clear goals would lead to a "major economic upswing in our country". The leading economic research institutes, he said, had revised their latest forecasts upwards, and billions were being invested in the country's future. He called upon companies to invest in new facilities and production saying that: "the early birds will be part of the economic recovery."