IHKs: "More courage for change"

Potsdam, February 23, 2025 "No more business as usual! After the Bundestag elections, we now need a decisive change of course to stop the free fall in German competitiveness." This is the view of Potsdam's IHK President Ina Hänsel, Chairwoman of the State Working Group of the Brandenburg Chambers of Industry and Commerce.

"Germany's economy can only recover and keep pace with international competition if it succeeds in charting a new course through far-reaching structural reforms and attracting more investment. This can be achieved with a sustainable skilled labor strategy and recruitment offensive, simpler and faster procedures and clear rules. Internationally competitive energy costs and a tangible reduction in bureaucracy coupled with billions in investment in digital administration, transport infrastructure and innovation are also necessary for this. We presented our demands for the Bundestag elections to the parties at an early stage - now we expect action and will closely monitor their implementation," said Ina Hänsel. "Germany certainly has the experts - but too little courage to change. That has to change."

In the current IHK survey, only five percent of companies nationwide see a good supply of skilled workers, while two thirds rate the situation as negative. Two out of three companies see the German bureaucratic burden as a clear competitive disadvantage. Almost all companies are dissatisfied with energy costs, and over 80 percent consider Germany to be uncompetitive internationally as a result. Not a single company is of the opinion that the current corporate taxation contributes to competitiveness.

"To ensure that the economy can continue to provide jobs, training and prosperity in the future, stability and more reliability are urgently needed - but above all practical framework conditions to make Germany more attractive again on an international scale," says Ina Hänsel for Brandenburg's CCIs.