In Germany, we often talk about problems. Far less often do we talk about the opportunities and the many potentials. When I speak with investors in North America, Asia, and the Middle East, I always notice a remarkable difference. Many look at Germany with greater confidence than we do ourselves. They appreciate the political stability in an increasingly uncertain world, strong institutions, a reliable rule of law, and an industrial base that is second to none worldwide. Above all, they see concrete opportunities for long-term investments and thus growth in Germany. And at last week's IMF and World Bank meeting in Bangkok, this more positive perception of Germany and Europe was clearly palpable. And it is precisely about these opportunities that the location report of the initiative Made for Germany, which we are presenting to you today, is concerned. The report shows, based on facts, where Germany's strengths lie and why our country remains so attractive for long-term oriented investors. Its core finding is clear: Germany has enormous potential. The crucial thing now is to translate this potential into investments, productivity, and growth, and to do so we must address the obstacles that have held us back in recent years. The federal government has taken important first steps, and our report also addresses these. Your reform resolve, the higher infrastructure investments, and the measures to strengthen the location are being noticed internationally. And for that, recognition and thanks are due to the government and especially to you, Madam Federal Minister, as well as for the very good, open, and always solution-oriented dialogue with the business community and with Made for Germany. At the same time, we must not rest on our laurels. The announced reforms can only be the beginning. They must now be implemented, and then more must follow. Germany faces a historic investment task. It is too large to be mastered with public funds alone. Public investments can provide the initial impetus. But we will only be permanently successful if we additionally mobilize private capital on a large scale. And the capital is there, but it needs an environment that enables and accelerates investments. Investors want reliability, but investors also want speed, less bureaucracy, faster approvals, competitive energy conditions, and stronger capital markets. Every political decision should be measured against a simple question: Does it strengthen growth and competitiveness? And this applies not only to Germany but especially to Europe. In the EU as well, the right course must be set, and for that we need a strong voice from the federal government. I say this so clearly because I am convinced: the window of opportunity is open now. Now is the critical moment to take responsibility, make decisions, and shape our country's future by our own efforts. Ladies and gentlemen, capital is fungible, and we are, after all, in competition with many other regions and countries of this world. Made for Germany was born out of exactly this conviction. Today, nearly 150 companies belong to the initiative, which clearly commit to the German location and plan investments of more than 850 billion euros by 2028. With this report, we want to focus attention on Germany's opportunities and, together with you, help to get more out of them. Madam Federal Minister, thank you very much for the trusting dialogue and your openness to the concerns of the business community. We look forward to walking this path together with you. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Mr. Sewing. Next, Mr. Busch.
Yes, dear Federal Minister Reiche, thank you for taking the time again for Made for Germany. We all know that to remain competitive, we need comprehensive reforms in Germany. The course taken is right. The crucial thing now is fast and complete implementation. But if we only look at the deficits, we overlook the remarkable potential of our country. Germany still has the full potential that an attractive investment location needs: the right technologies, excellent research, high-quality industrial data, and strong ecosystems. In our report Reinventing Growth, we show this potential. There is a huge opportunity here for international investments: 4 trillion euros by 2035. Industrial AI is the opportunity of the century for Germany, for high-quality jobs, and for new growth. Germany can and must be the country where new technologies are developed and scaled industrially. Our decisive advantage in artificial intelligence is the combination of AI with German engineering and industrial data. Other regions may lead in foundation models, but with industrial AI we can create a strong engine for growth and value creation. We have everything it takes. But we must now translate technological potential into productivity and growth, because the world is not waiting for us. That is why we must clearly prioritize future technologies such as industrial AI, pick up speed, and scale in Germany and in Europe. International investors see these great opportunities and will be there if the framework conditions are right. That is why we must now give reforms for growth and competitiveness clear priority. Specifically: consistent deregulation at all levels, digitalization and acceleration of decision-making processes, focus on investments in future technologies, low energy prices, and a comprehensive structural reform of the labor market for lower non-wage labor costs, more flexible working hours, and incentives and support for more work. Madam Minister, I know that you are driving all of this forward. For that, a very heartfelt thank you. You have the business community by your side.
Thank you very much, dear Christian Sewing, dear Roland Busch. My heartfelt thanks goes first of all to you both, on behalf of the initiative Made for Germany. Made for Germany came together at a time when the government was, so to speak, still in the making. It clearly committed to the German location, in the belief that reforms would follow the investments that the companies that came together back then put on the table. The initiative has since grown considerably. I also want to thank you for that, and I also want to thank you for a generous assessment that the first reforms have been set in motion. Reinventing Growth is being presented on the occasion of our first investment summit, which a German federal government is planning, holding, and hosting as a standalone event for the first time. Not only a well-chosen title, but also a well-chosen moment. Reinventing Growth. It reminds me of a sentence by John Maynard Keynes. I am rarely suspected of quoting John Maynard Keynes, but in this case I will: "The difficulty lies not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones." And that applies in many respects, especially when it comes to our growth. For decades, we could reduce growth to three sources: more labor, more capital, and higher productivity. On labor, demographics are changing our possibilities and forcing other courses of action. On capital, the state is currently providing an exceptionally strong investment impulse. It does what has been missing for a long time, though by taking on large amounts of debt. But 500 billion euros in investment funds for infrastructure and climate protection is indeed a statement. And with that, the third factor moves to the center: productivity. So how do we generate significantly more economic growth with the minds we have, the capital, and the industrial base? And this is exactly where artificial intelligence changes the equation. The first wave of AI mainly covered the digital world: knowledge, language, software, and administrative processes. The next wave, as Roland Busch just said, covers the physical part of the economy, the real economy. AI is moving into machines, into robots, into factories, and energy systems. It changes not only how products are developed, but also how plants are operated and how industrial processes are controlled. And that gives new value to those capabilities in which we have always been world champions and on which generations of German companies have built prosperity and growth: production know-how, mechanical engineering know-how, engineering competence, process excellence, manufacturing competence, highly qualified employees. The world knows many countries with software competence, but only a few have the industrial base to move from the first wave of AI to the second. Therein lies a great opportunity. Yes, we already see some growth this year, 1.3% this year, 1.1% hopefully next year. And it is also true that two-thirds of this impulse comes from public investments. Private investments are still at a restrained level, however. We see the demand. But we will only actually create growth if we work on the three fields mentioned: additional capital to be able to invest at all in new machine technologies and higher productivity. And that, for me, is the core of Reinventing Growth: turning a public investment impulse into broader growth. That is based on investments by private investors, private financiers. Here we need a ratio of about 1:10 in investments to mobilize our country. Yes, we start with good conditions. I already pointed to the depth of industrial manufacturing, to the skilled workers, to institutional stability. That is also right. At a time when even large neighboring European countries are having difficulty keeping their public budgets stable, a triple-A rating for the Federal Republic of Germany, legal certainty, and the large single market in whose heart Germany is located — 450 million inhabitants in the European Union — are good preconditions. For investors, these are assets without a doubt, and yet these assets must be leveraged if they are to unleash the power that Reinventing Growth ultimately requires. And here I will only briefly repeat what has already been said: we must deal with the labor market and its flexibilization. We must make our social security systems fit, because otherwise the non-wage labor costs will no longer be attractive and competitive. We must work on energy prices and on the speed of our approvals and public regulation. Much is still too slow, and we are working on that. I come back to Keynes. The new ideas are there without a doubt. Artificial intelligence is there, the industrial data are there, the capital is there, research, industry, entrepreneurial spirit, and also entrepreneurial willingness to take risks. The task now will be to generate sustainable growth from all of this. That is also what I understand by Reinventing Growth: a sustainable encouragement to the government to really continue the reform course it has embarked on. Because the legislative period is four years, we have to keep at it, and I also take that on as a mandate. Thank you very much to Made for Germany for an always constructive, positive, encouraging accompaniment, and sometimes a critical word, because in the end, politics can set the framework, but companies have to fill it. And in this spirit, I look forward not only to further cooperation with Made for Germany, but also to the first investment summit that we will hold here in Berlin over the next two days.
Thank you, Madam Minister. We have time for a few questions. I ask for your understanding — not everyone will be able to get a word in. We will start with Mr. Hönig.
Yes, Andreas Hönig, not from dpa. I have two questions: one for Mr. Busch and one for the Minister. Mr. Busch, you described industrial AI as the opportunity of the century. Two questions about that. First, how important is the project with Nvidia, in which Siemens is also involved? And second, why is the industrial SME sector still hesitating? And Ms. Reiche, to what extent are you concerned that investors will now be put off by the plans of the red-red-green coalition in Berlin to expropriate housing companies? Is that an issue for you now at the summit as well, or do the investors say that is just one federal state?
Let me start. First, on Nvidia. Most of you associate Nvidia with GPUs, highly complex semiconductors that you find in data centers or in AI factories. Beyond that, Nvidia has a technology stack: software, its own model, its own foundation model, Omniverse — software with which you can render manufacturing environments photorealistically. And that is where the partnership between Siemens and Nvidia comes in. We look at the complete stack. That includes the AI factories. Together with Nvidia, we are defining a white paper on what new AI factories will look like. They consume much more energy, must be supplied with different technologies, with different switching technologies. But we also look at the application: industrial applications where it is about photorealistic representations of a manufacturing environment and then simulating them. What we contribute is the digital twin with physics in it. So it does not just look like the real world, it also behaves like it. And that is crucial, because industrial AI means a non-deterministic technology — bringing AI into an environment where it must work safely and reliably, and where the AI does exactly what it has to do. That requires the interplay of the technology stack, which is provided primarily by Nvidia, and of course the applications and the industrial software needed for it. On the SME sector — I don't know if it is hesitating. I believe what everyone underestimates is — and the quote fits well here — you have to unlearn how you worked before and learn how to work anew. For the SME sector, it is first about the development process for the machines. It is also about the application, and that requires a lot of know-how. With AI, you can write bad code faster, and that is not what we want. You really need the skills, and you have to be willing to share data, open up data spaces, and work more and more in ecosystems — which many SMEs are not used to in that form. They are suppliers in a chain, and you have to rethink that. So I believe the SME sector is ready to change. It feels the pressure — the productivity pressure, the innovation pressure that also comes from China. So I would formulate it differently: I believe the SME sector is already on board. It will take some time, but we already see momentum.
Thank you, Mr. Hönig, for your question. As Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, I see a clear danger for the location that goes far beyond Berlin, if there is a party that not only talks openly about expropriation and so-called socialization, but makes it a condition for a coalition — and that, secondly, not only tolerates manifest antisemitism in its ranks, but celebrates people who are hostile to Israel and deny Israel's right to exist. This is not only noticed abroad, but discussed very critically. Not openly on stage, but as a major concern for the location and for a final decision. It is now up to the two other parties, which publicly claim to want nothing to do with it, but somehow such a coalition does come about, to clearly distance themselves from it and to pursue other possibilities of finding a majority, and to let that happen in the capital. Berlin has an effect, but it would be the same in any other federal state, going far beyond borders. Not far from here ran the Berlin Wall. Since I grew up in the other part, I know how a state collapsed, because expropriation, socialization, the disregard of private property, the tearing apart of property, liability, and risk ultimately led not only to the crash of an economy, but to the collapse of a state. And it is simply beyond my comprehension how one can now propose recipes that have never worked anywhere in the world as solutions to the problems at hand in the federal capital. We will use the next day and a half to make very clear that this is definitely not a model for our country.
