Present challenges to be handled by the economic policy

About 750 participants accepted the invitation of the Employers’ Association of the Cement and Building Materials Industry (azb) and came to Beckum on 26.01.2009. During the ­“Höxberg Talks” (Fig. 2) Christian Wulff, the Prime Minister of Lower Saxony (Fig. 1), dealt mainly with the possibilities of supporting the small business in times of the economic crisis in his lecture “Present challenges to be handled by the economic policy”. He mentioned concrete examples of the federal state Lower Saxony to show that there still is “room for optimism” even in difficult economic times. ­
After a short digression into the cement industry and the possible impacts of economic policy measures on it – in the 20^th century Beckum was a stronghold of the cement industry with more than 30 factories – Wulff analyzed the political and economic situation both in Lower Saxony and Germany as a whole. He underlined that the stimulatory government meas­ures give rise to optimistic expectations as regards the building trade. The Federal Government, the federal states and communities want to invest additionally about 17 billion € in the infrastructure. The majority of the money is to be spent on the rehabilitation of educational institutions and on road and railway construction.

Referring to the current situation Wulff explained that many certainties, which in the past were firm and unshakeable, are now in question. There was no crisis in the past that covered the USA, Europe and Asia at the same time. However, Wulff also emphasized that the German economy is well positioned compared to other industrial states. He continued by mentioning measures to counteract the financial crisis, such as the Financial Markets Stabilization Act, the security precautions for Nord/LB (a bank), the bond line amounting to a total of 2.1 billion € for industrial enterprises in Lower Saxony as well as the active participation of Lower Saxony in the 15 point program of the Federal Government. First of all banks have to guarantee the credit supply to the small business and should not get a return on an investment of 10, 20 or even 25  %! The development during recent months has shown serious faults of the banks. Instead of looking after private customers and the small business, the focus of many banks was on the offshore trade and on new, hardly understandable financial products. “For me the highest priority is to avoid a shortage of credit on the financial market and to maintain available credits on terms that can be paid”, Wulff said. Furthermore, he pleaded for composure and moderation. …“It is nonsense now to live excessively on credit again in Germany. Everybody should know: All debts have to be paid eventually including interest and compound interest.”

Wulff underlined that Germany has a good starting position because:

– the Euro is strong and stable,

– there is a drop in interest,

– with 500 million consumers, the European domestic market is larger than the American market,

– we have good relations to the emerging countries of the future: the Arabian world, Brazil, China, India,

– we have a favourable geographic location,

– in Germany, we manufacture products which during the next upswing will be needed worldwide even more than today! As regards fuel saving cars, alternative drives, renewable energies or machine building, the German economy is well placed.

“For 60 years in Germany we have been relying on the forces of the social market economy. However, the social market economy also means markets in good working order to serve the people and not vice versa”, continued Wulff.

At the end of his speech Wulff pointed out that undoubtedly education would be the key to the future of our country. The Federal Government and the federal states jointly agreed at the qualification summit to increase the expenses for education and research nationwide to 10  % of the GDP up to 2015. Furthermore, the Ideas Expo will again take place in Hanover in September 2009 to inspire as many young people as possible with enthusiasm for the technical professions.     

Wulff (Fig. 3) concluded his speech with the call: “We should not speculate on the future, let’s start our work with optimism, common sense and energy. In a joint effort and with mutual confidence we will master the challenges of the months to come!”