At the request of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Technology (BMWi) and the Federal Agency for Foreign Trade (bfai) a special trip to Romania is organized during which participants are given the possibility to learn more about issues relating to water and environmental engineering. The trip is organized by the European Institute for Technology Proliferation (EITEP). It will take place in the period from June 17th to June 20th 2007 on the occastion of the EXPO APA trade fair. more…

As was reported yesterday by the German Association for Information Management, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM), 60% of Germans had been online by the end of the year 2006. This is 7% more than the EU average and this figure is to increase to almost 70% by 2010. In the Scandinavian countries and the USA the percentage of internet users already amounts to 75% and above. For the year 2010 this figure is expected to rise to about 88% in the USA. For the time being the biggest backlog in this respect is to be found in South European countries like Spain where just 40% of people use the internet and Eastern Europe where the average percentage of internet users is only 14%. All the figures mentioned above were established by the EITO market research institute. more…

In the opinion of most German top managers increased climate protection will have no negative consequences to the German economy. This is the finding of a survey among 646 representative leaders from business, politics and administration which was conducted by the Allensbach Institute (IfD) on behalf of the “Capital” business magazine. more…

On Tuesday EU finance ministers unanimously agreed on standardized regulations for cashless payments via bank cards and money transfers. Costs, procedures and periods for such payments are to be adjusted to those already in effect in individual member states. The objective is to create a single European space for payment transactions (Sepa). The intention of the finance ministers is to realize some parts of this project as early as 2008. more…

Over recent years the increasing necessity to make use of renewable sources of energy has led to the advent of a new industrial sector in Germany which has meanwhile developped into an important line of business with an annual turnover of about 32 billion Euros. The Darmstadt-based Hoppenstedt business information service provider has now established a ranking of companies in this new renewable energy sector listed by company size. more…

Even though 84% of all German companies started innovative projects over the last three years in order to stay competitive and most of them are determined to keep doing so, many companies have problems in commercially exploiting their innovative product ideas. This fact was recently revealed by a study named “Zukunft gestalten im globalen Wettbewerb – Innovation als Erfolgsfaktor im Mittelstand” which was conducted by the “Unternehmer Perspektiven” initiative set up by Commerzbank. more…

The German processing industry increased its turnover by 8.6% in real terms in January 2007 as compared to January 2006. Turnover on the German market rose by 5.9% and that in the business with foreing purchasers even by 12.0%. These figures were published today by the Federal Statistical Office. more…

In the competition of becoming more and more competitive in the short term small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are losing out. In order to take strategic decisions in an always more complex environment a reliable source of information is indispensable. The problem encountered by SMEs is the procurement, structuring and systematic exploitation of information. A solution may come in the form of a new software which was developped by the Fraunhofer IAO in the course of an EU project called »AMI-SME«. more…

A new plan by the German Minister for Economic Affairs, Mr. Glos, aimed at regulating the German low wage sector seems to meet with approval on the part of economists. A study by the Forschungsinstituts zur Zukunft der Arbeit (IZA) examined the effects which this plan would have. The positive finding is that it would generate about 1.4 million new jobs and save public money amounting to about 25 billion Euros each year. more…

As was reported on Friday by the European Central Bank the trade balance for the Euro zone in January 2007 closed with a surplus which seasonally adjusted amounted to 2.7 billion Euros. The surplus in trade in goods and services compensated for the deficits relating to items regular payments/deductions and income from investment and employment. more…