Articles
Merkel opens CeBIT
Mon, 01.03.2010
Photo: REGIERUNGonline/Bergmann
Merkel and Zapatero (right) in Hanover
German Chancellor Angela Merkel believes that information and communication technologies (ICTs) are key drivers of globalisation and progress. They stand for the openness that modern markets now need in many respects, the Chancellor said at the opening of the world's biggest IT trade show.
Merkel said that the international economy had to find the right balance between rules and freedom, just as people had done in networked communities. Free trade, open borders and a lack of obstacles to progress were good for the whole international community – if everyone stuck to the predetermined rules.
"The world is not yet out of danger following the economic crisis," the Chancellor warned. Crisis management and the big economic stimulus packages now had to be followed up by the international community returning to sound fiscal policy – and thus to new stability, she said.
Only then could markets regain their trust in national economies, and not least in the European common currency too. "As a key currency, the euro got us safely through the crisis," Merkel concluded. Now the euro countries had to revert back to the stability and growth policy they had agreed on.
Earlier the Chancellor and Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero had given their assurance that the EU wanted to help its crisis-ridden euro-partner Greece send the markets positive signals along with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Networking 'old' and 'new' technologies
'Classical' industries and sectors now had to use digital technologies to quickly grow closer, Merkel added in Hanover.
August-Wilhelm Scheer, the president of the industry association BITKOM, called on the various branches of industry to engage in more intensive dialogue and exchange in order to be able to do just that. There was an increasing amount of overlap between sectors when it came to hardware and services. Unexpected champions would thus arise, the professor of business information technology predicted.
Know-how is what is needed for that to happen – especially in a country like Germany that has few natural resources. The German Government had therefore set itself the goal of soon allocating 10 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) to education and research (three per cent to research, seven to education), the Chancellor said.
The Federation wants to promote mathematics and natural sciences in particular. Merkel again called on businesses to give graduates in these subjects a break even during the crisis.
Scaling up broadband access
Whilst 99 per cent of Spain, this year's partner country at CeBIT, already has broadband access, Germany wants to achieve its goal of blanket broadband coverage by the end of this year. "There's still a lot of work to be done," the Chancellor admitted in view of a number of 'blind spots' in rural regions.
High-speed internet connections were, however, a must, since it was the networks that ensured economic development, Merkel said. That is why the German Government wants to make sure that three quarters of the country has super-fast internet access (up to 50,000 kilobits per second) by 2014.
CeBIT is the world's largest trade show specifically for ICT. It was founded in 1986 and has been held in Hanover in March ever since. 4,157 exhibitors from 68 countries provide a comprehensive overview of demand and supply on the global market. Several hundred thousand visitors are expected.The recurrent theme of this year's show is "Connected Worlds", that is internet-based global networks. CeBIT is also continuing to expand its previous keynote topic of "Green IT".
This year's partner country is Spain, one of the top five European high-tech markets that also holds the promise of interesting cooperations with South America.
CeBIT is the abbreviation for Centrum der Büro- und Informationstechnik (Centre for Office and Information Technology), which regularly took part in the annual HANNOVER MESSE from 1970. The exhibition became a separate trade show in 1986.
This year's partner country is Spain, one of the top five European high-tech markets that also holds the promise of interesting cooperations with South America.
CeBIT is the abbreviation for Centrum der Büro- und Informationstechnik (Centre for Office and Information Technology), which regularly took part in the annual HANNOVER MESSE from 1970. The exhibition became a separate trade show in 1986.
