Economic Programme: Minister of State Ilse Aigner and her three big “I “s
On 19 January 2014, the New Year’s reception of the Industrieverbund Mühldorf (IVM) and the Industriegemeinschaft Waldkraiburg-Aschau (IGW) took place in the Mühldorf town hall. On this occasion, Bavarian Minister of State Ilse Aigner presented an economic programme with a triple “I”.
With innovation, investment and the promotion of international competitiveness, she wants to create good framework conditions for the economy.
Various reports can be read in the media, e.g. under: http://www.innsalzach24.de/innsalzach/muehldorf/muehldorf/neujahrsempfang-muehldorfer-stadtsaal-ilse-aigner-3322539.html
Wanner GmbH was among the invited guests and. In addition to the lectures and public information it obtained information from the participants. These are from branches: industry, trade, banks and politics. They talked about the situation on the personnel market and the education sector. They also discuss the general economic situation of companies in the region.
The economy in the region
On the one hand, there is a lack of qualified trainees and motivated and developable skilled workers. On the other hand, the region has shortcomings in infrastructure and succession planning. Various generational changes in small and medium-sized enterprises are pending in the region. These are usually tackled slowly or not at all. According to a bank representative, some owners are difficult to convince that external help is necessary to solve succession issues. Accordingly, many companies are closed as soon as the owner reaches retirement age. Thus, expertise and the customer base are lost instead of a successor continuing the business. This is a surprising realisation, as the company is usually the owner’s life’s work.
New economic programme: Promotion of start-ups in Bavaria
In addition, Ms. Aigner’s statement that the promotion of start-ups is to be improved by the new economic programme in Bavaria was strongly discussed. Because only about three years ago, the promotion of start-ups was dramatically reduced by the “same people”. Today, there are only a few and very limited funding opportunities. As a result, the statistics show a dramatic decline in start-ups. Fatal, as the discussion participants unanimously pointed out. After all, it is the small and medium-sized enterprises that create the jobs. Also these companies are responsible for the good economic situation in Germany. Ultimately, the announcement of the improvement of the funding situation was not seen as a positive signal. Rather it was seen as an admission of a mistake. Hopefully, this will now be corrected soon.
Infrastructure
With regard to infrastructure, the construction of the A94 motorway was mentioned most often. The Munich – Passau axis is not only important for economic concerns. It is also important for the large number of commuters who live in the surrounding area.
Reality check: The situation of skilled workers
Looking more closely, the skilled labour situation varies greatly. Some companies have no problems finding the right employees. They score points either with their good name or with their sophisticated training and qualification programmes. On the other hand, some sectors, and the skilled trades in particular, complain about a significant lack of applicants for apprenticeships. Often the qualifications for the profession to be learned are also insufficient. But the region is also taking active steps in this area, for example by setting up a working group called SchuleWirtschaft (SchoolBusiness) and using state support programmes to qualify young people. Unfortunately, the situation is not ideal.
As Ms. Aigner said: “… I was born in 1964 and since that year the birth rates have been falling and with them the available labour force….”.
This is a challenge especially for the small and medium-sized companies, which cannot create the marginal conditions for the employees as the large companies can.
