CDU on the economy

The CDU wants to strengthen Hamburg's economy through better general conditions rather than state intervention. It relies on less red tape, better infrastructure, a corporate tax reform and investment in new technologies. Its reasoning is that Hamburg has fallen behind in the competition between business locations.

The CDU wants to strengthen Hamburg's economy. Companies should face less red tape. Roads, networks and other facilities should get better. Company taxes should be reformed. Hamburg should do a lot for climate protection and hydrogen.

The CDU wants Hamburg to become the big German city most favorable to innovation and investment. Starting a company should get easier, and family-run and long-established firms should have a secure outlook. The corporate tax reform is meant to raise competitiveness and allow more investment in the country. With renewable energy, sustainable mobility and an expanded hydrogen economy for the port and industry, Hamburg is to lead on climate protection and energy. For the CDU, ecology, social balance and economic success belong together.

The CDU wants to keep Hamburg's port as a universal port, clear the backlog of investment, and gradually rebuild the quay walls. The federal government should contribute at least 500 million euros a year to the running costs of Germany's seaports, since the program sees the port as serving a national function.

The CDU wants to spend more money on the port. The quay walls should be rebuilt step by step. Ships should be able to reach the port reliably. The federal government should pay at least 500 million euros a year for German seaports.

The port development plan is to be fundamentally revised. The planned channel depths in the port and on Hamburg's stretch of the Elbe should be maintained again so that shipping lines and terminal operators can plan ahead. The CDU calls for a national port strategy and a federal contribution of at least 500 million euros a year. Port land should stay reserved for port businesses, port-related industry and the energy sector; housing should not push further into the port area. The western expansion at Waltershofer Hafen and the larger turning basin are to be carried out, and the Köhlbrand crossing and the A26-Ost highway sped up. Additional terminal shareholdings are meant to increase competition inside the port.

The CDU wants to set up a regulatory sandbox called "Freihafen 2.0" where companies and start-ups can try out new technologies under relaxed rules. Anything permitted in any EU country should be permitted there as well.

The CDU wants to create a special area in Hamburg. It is called Freihafen 2.0. Companies should be able to test new technology there. The rules there should be looser. What is allowed elsewhere in the EU should be allowed there too.

The zone is meant for testing things like new mobility concepts, energy generation technology and digital business models. The program sees Freihafen 2.0 as a hub for regulatory approaches from across the EU and wants to link it to European innovation networks. The Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) and other research institutions are to be closely involved. The site should be close to the city center and developed in dialogue with the port industry.

The CDU wants to make the skilled trades more attractive to young people, including through a master craftsman exam with no fees and a trades day in schools. A parking permit valid across the city is meant to make daily work easier for trade businesses.

The CDU wants to support the skilled trades. The master craftsman exam should be free. Schools should hold a day about the trades. Tradespeople should get a parking permit for the whole city.

Following Bavaria's example, Hamburg's schools would hold a trades day, along with promotion of school internships in trade businesses. The CDU wants to speed up digitalization in the trades and attract more women to these occupations. The fee-free master exam is meant to ease the skilled-labor shortage over the long term. A tradesperson parking permit modeled on Cologne's should be easy to obtain and also valid in resident parking zones. Small and midsize firms should find it easier to bid on public contracts through a more user-friendly central procurement platform expanded to all public buyers in the region.

The CDU wants to counter rising vacancies in the city center by redesigning public squares and giving retail more targeted support. Additional flight connections are meant to bring more international visitors to Hamburg.

Many stores in the city center are empty. The CDU wants to make the city center nicer. Public squares should be rebuilt. Empty stores should be used for art and culture. More visitors from abroad should come to Hamburg.

Retail is to be supported through neighborhood management and a bigger role in the work of Hamburg Marketing GmbH. Vacant spaces should be used temporarily for arts and cultural offerings. The CDU stands by its Alster promenade project with restaurants, cultural and event areas and a water feature on the Binnenalster. Free internet access should be available downtown, at tourist sites and in district centers. Revenue from the culture and tourism tax should go to new projects in culture, sports, tourism and business. The CDU backs the airport and wants the city center to stay reachable by every mode of transport, including parking.

The CDU wants business promotion to be judged less by new jobs and more by value creation. The cluster strategy is to be renewed and geared toward new technologies and links with science.

The city now supports companies mainly for creating jobs. The CDU wants to change that. What should count is how much research and development a company does. Companies in one industry should work more closely with science.

The key funding criterion should be how intensively a company does research and development. Clusters, meaning networks of companies in one industry, should focus on new technologies, for example in aviation, medical technology, maritime industry and basic materials. They are to be connected with research fields such as materials research, infection research, climate research or the data economy. The CDU also wants to build up capacity for securing raw materials at Hamburg's scientific institutions and have supply and demand for rare earths and similar minerals analyzed more closely.

The CDU wants to strengthen Hamburg as an industrial location, actively recruit companies and keep enough land available for new sites and expansions. Additional land is to be found in central locations as well.

The CDU wants more industry in Hamburg. Companies should find enough space. The CDU wants to look for new land, even in the middle of the city. Industry and housing should be possible side by side.

The basis would be an assessment of land by past and future use; the program sees unused potential in the port. The CDU wants to develop models for how industry and housing can exist next to each other. Permitting agencies should use their discretion in favor of projects. The program names a reliable 5G and fiber network as a further precondition.

The CDU wants to make Hamburg a city of founders, providing more funding, a Hamburg fund and a central service office. Founders should be able to focus on their business rather than paperwork in the early years.

The CDU wants more companies to be founded in Hamburg. Young companies should get more funding. There should be a special Hamburg fund. One central office should advise founders.

According to the program, Hamburg trails Berlin and Munich in new business formation and, relative to population, also Darmstadt, Karlsruhe and Heidelberg. Simpler and more heavily subsidized financing for tech start-ups and innovation projects is to be offered through the IFB development bank. The existing advisory centers are to be merged into one service office. The CDU supports the Startup Factory Hamburg in order to move more research into business and raise the number of technology-based start-ups.

The CDU wants no further residential areas designated in the port and industrial zone, in order to keep room for energy production and technology. In neighborhoods, living and working are to be more closely linked, including trades in the inner city and venues for music clubs.

The CDU wants to protect land for industry and skilled trades. No new residential areas should be built at the port. In the districts, living and working should be close together. Music clubs should also find new places.

The platform justifies this by saying that housing in HafenCity and on Kleiner Grasbrook is moving ever closer to the industrial zone. Trades and commercial businesses are to get land as needed, including in inner-city locations, which is meant to keep distances short. For Moorburg, the CDU wants to examine economic prospects that may go beyond port use. The zoning category "urban area" (urbanes Gebiet), which allows commerce, housing and social and cultural facilities side by side, is to be used more, together with the boroughs. The party wants to search for suitable venues together with representatives of the club scene.

The CDU wants closer ties between science and business so that research turns into market-ready products and new companies. This includes start-up support, more programs in future-oriented fields, more dual study programs, and European start-up funds.

The CDU wants research and companies to work together more. Research ideas should become new products and firms. Students should learn how to start a company. There should be more dual study programs. In these, people study and work at the same time.

University start-up centers and incubators are to be systematically linked with companies, chambers, and associations. Public-private partnerships are to create spaces for experimentation, along with tailored funding tools for founders and more entrepreneurship teaching. Programs and professorships in computer science, artificial intelligence, digital communication, and green tech are to be expanded. At the EU and federal level, the CDU wants new start-up funds and uniform European fund structures, since public money often covers only early stages. Dual study programs are to grow together with employers in fields short of skilled workers.

The CDU wants to raise the profile of the metropolitan region's health economy and build it up as a source of growth and jobs. A cross-agency overall strategy by the city government is to support companies and start-ups and connect them better.

Very many people in Hamburg work in the health sector. The CDU wants to strengthen this sector. It should bring more jobs. The city government should make a joint plan for this. The plan should help companies and young businesses.

The platform cites about 200,000 employees and 11.6 billion euros in value added per year and calls the sector the most important in the region. Hamburg is to become more attractive as a location for research, teaching and business in health care, biotechnology and medical technology. The health, science and economic authorities as well as the districts and the city's real estate administration are to take part in the strategy.