CDU on digital affairs

The CDU wants to digitalize the ports of Bremen and automate them more. It expects higher productivity, more cargo, and additional jobs behind the quay as a result.

The CDU wants to make the ports more digital. Machines should do more of the work themselves. The computer systems in the port should work together better. Workers should get training for this.

Within four years, the CDU wants to tackle an overarching digitalization strategy, a central data platform (data hub), and a cybersecurity strategy for the ports. Port workers are to receive further training in digitalization and automation. The platform puts the lag behind competing ports at five to ten years.

The CDU wants to create a separate government department for digitalization in the next legislative term. A central, independent unit is to plan, steer, and carry out the digitalization of the administration.

The CDU wants to create a separate department for digital matters. It should plan and guide the digital work of government offices. Bremen should lead in Germany in this area. The offices should work together better.

In the CDU's view, digitalizing the administration affects every area but has to be planned and steered from one place. The new department is to pool and expand existing expertise and strengthen cooperation among agencies and with other states. The platform speaks of a cultural shift in the administration, which the CDU wants to encourage with incentives. The short distances in the small state are to be used to become a national leader; the platform says the location's competitiveness depends on it.

The CDU wants to introduce a digital citizen service through which all government services are available online around the clock. Printed forms, waiting numbers, and correspondence by mail are to be eliminated.

The CDU wants to offer all government services online. Examples are parental allowance, housing benefit, or a new ID card. Citizens should be able to do this at any time. No one should have to print forms or wait at an office.

The platform cites parental allowance, ID cards, housing benefit, and change-of-address registration as examples. All government services are to be digitized and bundled so that neither a printer nor the mail is needed. The CDU wants to learn from the private sector in doing so. It relies on the nationally agreed "one for all" principle, under which states and municipalities share services that have already been digitized.

The CDU wants to do away with paper files in all of Bremen's government agencies except for unavoidable exceptions and to enforce the electronic record-keeping already required by law. Invoices are to be handled digitally from start to finish.

Many offices in Bremen still work with paper files. The CDU wants to end this. All files should be digital. Offices should also handle invoices only digitally. Good ideas from staff should win a prize.

According to the platform, documents are often still passed along in circulation folders and signed off by hand, even though electronic record-keeping has applied since January 1, 2022. Paper-based registers are to be digitized. The CDU wants to adopt proven procedures from Estonia and sees Bremen, as the smallest state, in a position to be a national pioneer in e-government. Invoices received electronically are no longer to be printed out but processed digitally. An annual prize is to go to the person whose improvement to a work process in the administration saved an especially large amount of money.

The CDU wants to make Bremen a leading location for artificial intelligence in Germany. To that end, research, training of skilled workers and support for small and medium-sized businesses are to be expanded. In the program's view, data protection must not stand in the way of innovation.

The CDU wants Bremen to be strong in artificial intelligence. These are computer programs that learn on their own. There should be more research and more experts. Small companies should get help. Data protection should not slow down new ideas.

The program sees AI as a key technology that should be considered in every policy area and should bring growth and jobs. Research on AI is to be stepped up. Vocational school teachers are to get extra training, and universities are to be supported in educating AI specialists. Small and medium-sized businesses are to get easily accessible offers for trying out and using AI. The program names an AI transfer center as one possible route and also wants more companies from the sector to settle in Bremen.

The CDU wants to make the state a pioneer in data and open up public data widely. The program treats data as a factor of production and a competitive advantage from which new business models should emerge.

The CDU wants to open government data to everyone. This means data on traffic, climate and maps, for example. Data about individual people is not included. Companies should use the data for new business ideas.

Data that relates neither to individuals nor to companies, such as traffic flow, climate data or geodata, is to be published under an open data approach. The CDU wants to discuss with businesses in Bremen and Bremerhaven how unused private-sector data can also be linked in. Data infrastructure, data spaces and common standards are to be expanded for this purpose. Data skills are to become part of the curriculum in schools, vocational training and universities. An advisory program is planned to help business owners use data.

The CDU wants to use artificial intelligence across the board in routine government procedures. This is meant to make public offices more efficient and more citizen-friendly.

The CDU wants to use smart computer programs in public offices. The programs should do simple tasks on their own. This should make the offices faster. It should help people.

As an example, the program mentions an automatic email sent before an ID card expires. An order for a resident parking permit could likewise be checked against existing data and triggered automatically. In the CDU's view, processes should be designed not just digitally but intelligently.

The CDU wants to close the remaining gaps in high-performance internet connections for businesses, private households and educational institutions. The program treats broadband as a public infrastructure task like roads or utility lines.

The CDU wants fast internet everywhere. This applies to companies, homes and schools. The state should take care of it like it does roads. Schools should get good Wi-Fi in classrooms.

The program sees broadband as a basic requirement for taking part in economic life and as part of economic development and infrastructure policy. Because of working from home and businesses started in private apartments, residential areas are to be included as well. Existing connections are to be checked regularly and upgraded where needed. Schools, vocational schools and universities are to get high-performance connections and Wi-Fi in classrooms.