Germany Has Everything – Except Time to Lose

The pandemic has ruthlessly laid bare deficits in numerous areas, underlining the crucial role of digitalization for Germany’s long-term success. “Business as usual” won’t cut it. To stay viable in an increasingly digital and networked world, we need to further develop our economic model.

Time is running out, which is why we urgently need a government that is willing and able to act consistently and quickly. Keeping up with global competition and curbing climate change – the greatest challenge we face – are momentous tasks. Delays of any sort will only serve to make things harder.

A new federal government, therefore, needs to drive digitalization and sustainability with courage and speed, viewing them as two sides of the same coin. The role of technology has long since moved on from simply managing productivity or operating results. Technology can make protecting the climate measurable, diversity and inclusion visible, and ethical responsibility transparent – not just within the four walls of a company, but across its entire value chain.

Without technology and end-to-end digitalization our sustainability goals cannot be achieved. This holds true for the majority of our efforts to reduce CO2, such as developing intelligent power grids and buildings, or modern solutions for transportation and mobility.

Just to give one example: According to Bitkom, digital technologies can reduce CO2 emissions by 120 megatons, a contribution that makes up almost 50% of Germany’s climate targets for 2030. This shows that a highly digitalized economy and society can achieve much more than simply ensuring a country remains globally competitive.

With this in mind, there are four points in my option that are essential to a future-proof policy for digitalization and sustainability in Germany:

1. Key technologies: We must continue to promote key digital technologies, especially in the areas of artificial intelligence and quantum computing. This includes, for instance, the ongoing support of Gaia-X, the European digital ecosystem, the promotion of European data rooms and standards, for example in health or mobility, and the support of start-ups.
2. Regulation: Building on this, we need balanced regulation: This must take into consideration the legitimate requirements for data protection and security, but at the same time offer companies the freedom to drive innovation and form partnerships.
3. Education: Germany’s systems for work and education must be further developed and made fit for the digital world. This applies to in-company training and upskilling, as well as the equipment and curricula at schools and universities. We need to increase investments in our teachers so that they share their enthusiasm for technical innovations. Above all, the educational opportunities afforded cannot be dependent on an individual’s socio-economic background or status. We must implement Germany’s “Digital Pact” for schools and create a nationwide unified platform for educational offerings. I am also convinced that computer science must become a compulsory subject.
4. Administration: We need a unified platform for public administration. Aside from the fact that digital citizen services are being designed differently in each federal state, too many processes are currently still based on fax and paperwork. Federal, state, and local authorities use around 40,000 different software programs – setting up digital administration projects for failure. Rigid processes and a lack of flexibility make it difficult to attract digital talent and experts to the public sector. And yet this is exactly where we need them. What we need is a digital “jolt” in Germany's ministries and administrative offices. And because digitalization has an impact on all areas of politics, a digital ministry with a clear authority to issue directives is a must.

Despite the existing shortcomings and the significant need for action, we have reason to be optimistic: Germany has the all the prerequisites for success in the digital world and to help shape the next phase of digitalization. I am convinced that we can lead the fourth industrial revolution with our strong industrial base, our strengths in engineering, project management and processes, and our large pool of skilled workers.

To do this, however, we need to agree that this is exactly what we need and want to do, and that we are ready to take the necessary next steps. The corona pandemic has shown us what is possible if we do so. Researchers and companies from Germany played a key role in developing a vaccine against the virus and setting up production and delivery logistics in record time.

I know that Germany can do digitalization. We already have much of what we need. There is only one thing we certainly don't have: time to lose.

This article?first appeared?in WirtschaftsWoche (German).

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