Twenty years can change a great deal. The former GDR has become the “Powerhouse Eastern Germany”. Under this title Germany is successfully advertising for international investors in the new federal states. Foreign companies are increasingly discovering eastern Germany as an attractive economic location, where there are already 300 companies representing the USA alone. For example, there’s microchip producer AMD which has already invested more than six billion dollars in Dresden factories at the heart of the leading micro-electronics centre of “Silicon Saxony”. This is yet another title illustrating just how much has changed, not only for investors, but for people in eastern Germany as well.
The living conditions of most people in the east and west of the country had already become increasingly similar during the 1990s. Living conditions, the number of cars and the number of households with computers – today there are hardly any differences. In the east, real household income has reached around 80% to 85% of that in the western federal states. Admittedly, the latest unemployment rate is still almost twice that of western areas (12.1% compared to 6.6%). But particularly in economic centres, such as Dresden, Chemnitz and Leipzig, employment is now higher than in some of Germany’s western regions. In the eastern states, transportation and telecommunications infrastructures rank among the most modern in the world. This is also illustrates the success of the “Developing Eastern Germany” programme based on the economic solidarity pact between federal and state governments. The Solidarity Pact of 1993 provided the new federal states with 94.5 billion euros up to 2004. And Solidarity Pact II of 2005 guarantees them a further 156 billion euros up to 2019. In this case, payments will be gradually reduced over the coming years.
The declining dependence of the east on financial support in the future is being signalled by more than just flagship projects in “Silicon Saxony”. The broad expanse of “Solar Valley” between Halle, Dresden and Frankfurt/Oder is also now well-established. In September 2009 Europe’s largest solar module production plant opened in Luckenwalde, Brandenburg. Bitterfeld in Saxony-Anhalt, which was once the GDR’s lignite mining area, has meanwhile developed into a centre of the solar industry. And Jenoptik, the company founded in Jena in 1990, has long since gained a worldwide reputation – for instance, in laser technology and optical systems. This is complemented by an interdisciplinary research network, the Competence Triangle for Optical Microsystems created between Jena, Ilmenau and Erfurt. Such centres form the basis for innovation, and generate prospects for additional progress in all of the new federal states. ///
