"Made for Germany": Opening and welcome with speech by Lars Klingbeil | 30.09.26

Those who are our guests today, and I am particularly pleased that we can welcome you to our annual review and the exchange among our 140 member companies. I believe we are all agreed: Germany needs to invest in its future viability. That includes deploying public funds, in particular the infrastructure fund, in a way that advances our location. Above all, it is about combining public and private funds as effectively as possible. And the investment plans of the member companies of Made for Germany now amount to over 850 billion euros for the years 2025 to 2028. And I believe the good sign in this is that in 2025 alone, more than 200 billion euros of this amount has already been invested. The central message remains for us: we believe in Germany and we want to invest here. Investments above all need one thing, and we all know it: reliable and competitive framework conditions.

But international interest is great. A recent survey by Deutsche Bank of 1,200 executives and decision-makers worldwide shows one thing: Europe is, for many of them and for the majority today, the most attractive investment region in the world. For four out of five respondents in this study, Europe has gained in importance as an investment location, and within Europe, dear Höllingmall, Germany is the most important investment destination. And it is precisely this interest, this momentum, that we must now all work together to maintain. That includes reforms that relieve companies and citizens, keep our social systems sustainably affordable, and promote growth and technology. It also includes strengthening capital markets in order to mobilize more funds for the necessary investments. And here, in the coming months, it is particularly important to set the right course at the European level. We can only encourage you and the entire federal government to commit to this as strongly as you are doing, for example with the E6 initiative. All these reforms, which we have already actively and intensively discussed with you and other ministries in our working groups, remain essential for the future of our location. At the same time, we must work on further steps and remove obstacles that, as we have just discussed, continue to set us back internationally. For example, and I believe this is the most important thing, the current European regulation for artificial intelligence. The latest economic figures promise a slight tailwind, but that must not lead us to lean back. On the contrary, it should encourage us to intensify our reform efforts even further. As Made for Germany, dear Lingwald, we are happy to continue to support the federal government with advice and action. We have grown, and we appreciate today's dialogue and the dialogue with you on how we can continue to advance Germany together. We look forward to your input. Thank you for being here. The floor is yours.