CDU on the economy

The CDU wants to help businesses find skilled workers and bundle the measures in the Fachkräfteinitiative Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony skilled labor initiative). The platform points to the gap that retiring baby boomers will leave in the labor market.

Many older workers will retire soon. Then skilled workers will be missing. The CDU wants to help companies find them. The state should watch closely which jobs are needed.

Together with companies, unions, works councils, chambers, employment agencies, educational institutions, and researchers, a systematic skilled labor monitoring system is to be set up to spot qualification needs early. The focus is on health care and digital occupations; targeted funding programs are to cover future tasks and key technologies. Needs planning for health professions and teachers is to be better coordinated across ministries. Transformation and education guides are to continue their work. The CDU also wants to raise the standing of home economics as an occupation.

The CDU wants to make Lower Saxony Germany's leading state for start-ups and innovation and plans a statewide innovation and transfer strategy for this. It is meant to align the many players behind shared goals and allocate resources within a strategic framework.

The CDU wants many new ideas to come from Lower Saxony. There should be one shared plan for this. Universities, companies and trades should work together. A new agency should support new tech companies.

The strategy addresses universities, research institutes, start-ups, small and medium-sized companies and the skilled trades. Companies and founders are to get easier access to research and innovation funding, and high-tech incubators are to receive more money. An agency for high-tech entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer is to sit between the economics and science ministries and connect the players. For technological sovereignty and security of supply, the CDU wants to strengthen the circular economy and broaden raw material security plans. Innovation competitions, more support for the Ideenexpo (a youth science fair) and an internationalization strategy are also planned.

The CDU wants to set up innovation regions where new solutions can be tested with fewer regulatory requirements. Deviations from legal standards are also to be allowed there.

The CDU wants special regions for new ideas. Fewer rules should apply there. This makes it easier to try new things. Examples are transport, energy and health care.

The leeway is meant to allow new approaches to be tested, explicitly including legal standards. The program names mobility, health care, energy supply, urban development, public services in rural areas, digital communication and the use of data as fields of application. Overall, the CDU wants the regions to become central players in the state's innovation activity.

The CDU wants to make it easier to start a business through less red tape, faster procedures and more venture capital. Lower Saxony is to become the German state where the legal steps of founding a company take the least time.

The CDU wants people to start a company more easily. There should be less paperwork. Procedures should be faster. New companies should also get money more easily.

The supply of venture capital is to grow and also cover the first growth phase, which the program describes as a bottleneck for equity. Start-up centers are to receive more capital, and "Startup Niedersachsen" is to become an independent competence center. Dedicated centers are planned for key technologies, with branch sites away from university towns. Founder scholarships are to continue and become better targeted. Procedures are to be sped up through digitalization, among other things.

The CDU wants to pool the state's high-tech expertise and target funding at specific research fields. These include quantum technology, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing and aerospace.

The CDU wants to fund research on new technology more. This includes quantum technology and artificial intelligence. It also includes aviation and space. Researchers in the state should work together more closely.

The Quantum Valley Lower Saxony network is to keep receiving funding and serve as a model for further initiatives. The state's data, AI and related strategies are to be reviewed regularly and brought together under the innovation and transfer strategy. The Göttingen high-performance computing site is to be funded and made easier for researchers to use. AI research at several locations is to grow and be better connected. In aerospace, the CDU focuses on low-emission aviation and microsatellites; complexity research is also to be established at one university.

The CDU wants to strengthen the state-owned NBank as the central development bank and expand funding considerably. The bank is to offer advice and financing from a single source and provide venture capital, because the program sees a market gap for it in Lower Saxony.

NBank is the development bank of the state of Lower Saxony. The CDU wants to make this bank stronger. It should advise companies and give them money. It should also fund risky new business ideas. For this, the bank should get more staff and more money from the state.

NBank is to receive more staff and digital processes to handle new tasks. The NBank law would be amended and the bank equipped with equity and guarantees from the state's core budget. Its business policy would be adjusted so that venture capital becomes available in Lower Saxony. The bank would also be allowed to set up its own funds and refinance itself on the capital market. According to the program, the possibilities of a development bank with a banking license have not been fully used so far.

The CDU wants to support small and mid-sized companies with a grant program of €250 million over two years. It justifies this with the pressure that the crises of recent years have put on these firms and on business start-ups.

The CDU wants to help small and mid-sized companies. There should be 250 million euros over two years for this. About 25,000 companies could get money this way. Companies should also get more money for staff training. Applying for support should be simple and digital.

Assuming an average grant of €10,000 per case, the program expects 25,000 firms to be supported. The 2019 action plan for small and mid-sized firms and skilled trades is to be updated together with associations and chambers. Funding for training, especially on digitalization and Industry 4.0, is to rise considerably and be open to firms of any size; advisory vouchers and one-stop guidance are added. The state's business development fund is to be topped up and support for business succession mediation continued. The CDU wants to push for an end to the early due date of social security contributions, and funding applications are to be lean and digital.

The CDU wants to keep the start-up bonus and the master craftsman bonus in the skilled trades and extend the start-up bonus to solo self-employed people. At the same time, the trades are to be relieved of red tape. The program calls the skilled trades a pillar of mid-sized business and of dual vocational training.

The CDU wants to support the skilled trades. People who start or take over a trade business should keep getting a bonus. The bonus for the master craftsman certificate should stay too. The state should pay more for the training centers of the trades. Businesses should have less paperwork.

The start-up bonus introduced in 2019 and the master craftsman bonus are to continue, with a start-up bonus for solo self-employed people added. The regional funding scheme GRW is to include construction as well as service and repair sectors. The state would cover at least one third of the costs of the trades' inter-company training centers. Internship vouchers are meant to make trade occupations more attractive in career orientation. Record retention periods are to be shortened and documentation duties simplified; the clearing office stays, as do innovation funding and succession mediation.

The CDU wants to back brick-and-mortar retail, which it considers necessary for lively town centers and for supply in rural areas. It plans a new state program for town and village centers, help with digitalization, and legally secure rules for Sunday openings.

The CDU wants to help shops in town centers. Towns and villages should get money from the state for this. Shops should get help with going digital. The CDU also wants to change the law on Sunday opening. Sunday should stay protected.

A new funding program would give municipalities a fixed budget to continue town-center projects and start new ones; all municipalities that apply are to be included. Through "Niedersachsen Digital," retailers are to become more visible online and improve their business processes. The law on Sunday openings is to be revised in consultation with churches and unions while keeping the constitutional protection of Sunday. Holiday law and shop opening law are to be aligned, with an experimentation clause that could be tied to smaller sales areas or a limited range of goods. Urban planning concepts should consider retail together with restaurants, culture, leisure, work, and housing.

The CDU wants to keep Lower Saxony an industrial state and secure its value chains and jobs. It relies on fast permits, low energy prices, and support for the shift to Industry 4.0. Companies are also expected to contribute to meeting climate targets.

The CDU wants Lower Saxony to stay an industrial state. Jobs in industry should be safe. Companies should get permits quickly. Energy should be reliable and cheap. The state should support change in industry with money.

The program names energy-intensive industries, the auto industry with its suppliers, and mechanical engineering as facing particular challenges; food, life sciences, medical technology, and the maritime economy are among the fields of the future. The CDU wants to push for reliable energy supply, low energy prices, and fair conditions in international competition. The shift to Industry 4.0 is to be funded with money from the state, the federal government, and the EU. Permits for investments are to be granted quickly and with legal certainty, and the necessary spatial planning conditions created.

The CDU wants to keep the VW law, which secures the state of Lower Saxony special influence at Volkswagen, and to preserve and expand the company's sites in the state. It wants to shape the auto industry's shift to climate-friendly mobility so that it succeeds economically and is socially acceptable.

Volkswagen is the biggest company in Lower Saxony. The CDU wants to keep the VW law. This law gives the state a say at Volkswagen. The plants in Lower Saxony should stay and grow. The state should also support charging stations and battery factories.

According to the program, around 250,000 jobs in Lower Saxony depend directly on vehicle manufacturing, which is 30 percent of industrial jobs. The CDU wants to accompany the company on its path to electric mobility by funding the infrastructure needed for it. Volkswagen and the auto industry are to be supported in battery cell production, and production sites are to be located in the state. The program speaks of a technology-neutral change that Volkswagen is helping to shape.

The CDU wants to make Lower Saxony more attractive to aerospace companies and bring such firms to the state. Hannover Airport is to be secured economically and made greener through funding projects, without additional night flights. The research airport in Braunschweig is to be expanded.

The CDU wants more aircraft and space companies in the state. Hannover Airport should get money for new projects. There should be no extra night flights for this. The airport in Braunschweig should get more money for research.

The platform calls for targeted support for innovation at the state's sites, for example in lightweight construction. It describes Hannover Airport as a major regional employer that should be made future-proof through funding programs, explicitly not through more night flights. The state's airports are to cooperate more closely to gain better access to funding and make progress on climate protection. The Braunschweig research airport and the competence center for mobility are to be expanded and given financial support.

The CDU wants to increase support for tourism in Lower Saxony, focusing on sustainability and adaptation to climate change rather than just higher overnight-stay figures. It plans a new funding program, more offerings inland, and specific measures for the islands and the coast.

The CDU wants to spend more money on tourism. Guests should come all year round. Tourism should be kind to the environment. The islands should get their own contact person. Tourism workers should be able to find affordable homes.

The platform calls for a program named “Grundförderung Tourismus” (basic tourism funding), a resilience strategy for the sector, and more EU, federal and state money for infrastructure and businesses. The lakes Steinhuder Meer, Dümmer and Zwischenahner Meer are to be integrated more closely through master plans. Small tent meadows for cycling, water and hiking tourists are to be generally permitted. An island commissioner is to be created for the East Frisian Islands. More affordable housing is to be created for tourism staff, and lodging for seasonal workers should not be burdened through payroll tax. Cycling and public transit at destinations and rural spa towns are to be strengthened.

The CDU wants to allow private partners to take part in state-owned holdings because, in its view, this often increases efficiency. The NBank, the state's development bank, is to remain profitable, and savings banks and cooperative banks are to stay on a stable footing. In addition, an initiative is to strengthen Lower Saxony as a financial and stock exchange location.

The state owns shares in companies. The CDU wants to let private partners join in. The state's development bank should keep making a profit. Savings banks and cooperative banks should stay stable. Lower Saxony should grow as a place for banks and the stock exchange.

The platform calls for clear rules on managing, supervising and steering state holdings. The NBank is to increase its earning power as a partner of small and mid-sized businesses and offer financing that is not regularly available locally and that complements other banks. Financing options in the regions are to be preserved.