CDU on the economy

The CDU wants North Rhine-Westphalia to remain an industrial state and to keep the existing relief rules for energy-intensive companies. In the party's view, industry should contribute to climate protection through new technology rather than move abroad.

The CDU wants to keep industry in North Rhine-Westphalia. Some companies need a lot of energy. Today they get relief on their costs. The CDU wants to keep this relief. Research should help factories emit less CO2.

The platform points to more than one million workers in manufacturing and over a quarter of economic output. The CDU wants to secure public acceptance of industry and warns that driving energy-intensive firms abroad saves no CO2 but costs many jobs. Research and development should yield technologies that cut emissions and allow climate-neutral production. The relief rules for energy-intensive companies are to stay in place. The party also wants to expand the state's leading role in areas such as hydrogen, electric mobility, biotech and pharma.

The CDU wants to draw up a state strategy for a circular economy. It also wants the economy to become more crisis-proof and less dependent on fragile international supply chains.

The CDU wants a plan for a circular economy. That means raw materials get used more than once. The state then needs fewer new raw materials. Supply routes from abroad should also become safer.

The strategy is meant to serve three goals: keeping critical raw materials available, using fewer primary raw materials, and cutting greenhouse gases. The CDU wants to carry out specific projects with money from the next funding period of the European regional fund EFRE. The platform justifies the call for sturdier supply chains with recent experience of dependence on intermediate and finished goods.

The CDU wants to scrap two old rules for every new one. Permitting and planning procedures should become the fastest in Germany, and public tenders should be simpler.

The CDU wants less red tape. For every new rule, two old rules should go. Permits should be faster than anywhere else in Germany. Getting contracts from the state should also be easier.

The platform calls small and midsize businesses the backbone of the state economy and wants to relieve them of paperwork. Besides the "one in, two out" rule, the CDU aims for the shortest planning and permitting procedures nationwide. Awarding public contracts should become more efficient and less complicated. Reporting and documentation duties should be designed so that businesses can meet them more easily.

The CDU wants to launch a skilled-worker drive for the skilled trades and strengthen dual vocational training. Those who complete master craftsman training are to receive a bonus of 3,000 euros.

The CDU wants more skilled workers for the trades. Training in companies and schools should get stronger. People who become master craftsmen should get 3,000 euros. Women who want to become masters should get special support.

Securing skilled workers should be planned more comprehensively and more from the viewpoint of small and midsize firms. The CDU wants to safeguard small specialist classes in the trades. Women training to become master craftswomen are to get special support. The existing start-up grant for masters is to become more attractive. Programs that combine dual study or vocational training with the master's certificate are to be developed in a more practical way.

The CDU wants to expand funding programs for digitalization and innovation in small and midsize companies. The skilled trades are to get investment incentives for digital equipment, and university spin-offs are to receive more support.

Small and midsize companies should get more help with going digital. The trades should get incentives to invest in digital technology. The CDU also wants to give more support to new companies that come out of universities.

The platform justifies the support by noting that smaller firms have less staff and money. Existing programs are to be improved and tailored to their needs. In the trades, the platform says high investment costs are the biggest obstacle for about three quarters of firms; incentives are meant to change that. Funding for university spin-offs is to be widened. The CDU wants to encourage and advise companies to fund endowed professorships.

The CDU wants to support energy-intensive companies in shifting to climate-neutral production and calls for federal help to do so. In the Rhenish coal region, existing jobs are to be kept and new ones created.

Many companies must change how they produce to protect the climate. The CDU wants to help them. The federal government should give money too. Coal mining is ending in the Rhenish region. Jobs there should stay, and new ones should come.

The CDU wants to hold a regular dialogue on the future with those involved, modeled on its innovation dialogue with the trades. It expects the federal government to fund the transition and wants EU state-aid rules changed. In the Rhenish region, land is to be developed with foresight, including through pooled solutions. An international building and technology exhibition is to showcase the region as a model. Towns where coal plants close and sectors such as auto suppliers are to keep receiving support.

The CDU wants to make tourism in North Rhine-Westphalia a leader in sustainability. It plans a quality label with a funding program, a shared digital platform and a tourism app.

The CDU wants vacations in North Rhine-Westphalia to be easy on the environment. There should be a new label for that. It is called "Nachhaltig NRW!" (Sustainable NRW). A funding program comes with it. The CDU also plans an app for tourists.

The "Nachhaltig NRW!" label is to come with a matching funding program. Tourism offers are to be bundled on a single digital platform. In addition, the CDU wants to subsidize certifications under the "Reisen für alle" (Travel for All) mark, which identifies accessible offers.

The CDU wants to preserve savings banks, public-sector banks and cooperative banks as lenders to small and mid-sized businesses. Banking regulation is to be tiered by size because, in the party's view, European rules do not suit small institutions.

The CDU wants to keep savings banks and cooperative banks. These banks lend money to small companies. The CDU thinks small banks face too many rules. Small banks should have fewer rules than big ones. Their own safety systems should be enough.

The platform points out that regional banks stayed close to businesses during the COVID crisis and prevented cash shortages. The density of regulation is to depend on banks' size categories. Protection schemes are to be sized appropriately: where savings bank and cooperative associations have their own schemes, no further national or European schemes should be added as a burden.

The CDU wants to give stronger support to people founding companies in North Rhine-Westphalia and to attract more venture capital. Young companies should be able to grow faster and stay in the state once they have grown.

The CDU wants to help new companies. These companies are called start-ups. They should get more money from investors. They should stay in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The state is to use its own purchasing to favor new technologies, especially from start-ups. A strategy drawn up with all stakeholders is meant to make stock market listings more attractive for technology start-ups. The plans include a twice-yearly event called NRW.Matchup, outreach to family businesses and business angels, and an entrepreneurship competition at universities. The founder grants are to be continued and expanded, including the "Impact.NRW" platform for social entrepreneurship. A separate program is to support female founders and founders with a migration background.

The CDU wants to redo the state development plan and give municipalities clear, simple guidelines. Land for commerce and industry should be easier to designate, and designating new land should remain possible. New business areas are to be developed as climate-protection zones with as close to zero CO2 emissions as possible.

A plan says where building is allowed in the state. The CDU wants to make this plan new. Towns should get land for businesses more easily. New business areas should protect the climate.

The plan is to take into account sustainability, nature and environmental protection, the expansion of renewable energy, urban and transport development, and the needs of business. More leeway for commercial and industrial land is meant to strengthen the state as a business location and avoid conflicts with residential areas that deserve protection. Because densifying inner cities often fails, according to the platform, and cities need green and open space, new land should remain available, with ecological compensation. For new industrial and commercial areas the CDU favors the model of a climate-protection zone.

The CDU wants to expand the state initiative for downtown areas and continue the support measures begun during the COVID-19 pandemic. Changing the use of buildings is to become easier so that city centers offer a mix of shopping, housing, culture, crafts and restaurants.

The CDU wants to strengthen downtown areas. They should have shops, homes, culture and restaurants. Empty buildings should be easier to use in new ways. A digital list should record empty shops.

The initiative "Zukunft. Innenstadt. Nordrhein-Westfalen." is to be strengthened, and the downtown "future managers" it introduced are to become permanent. Municipalities are to get help with their own downtown concepts, with a focus on attractions that draw many visitors. The innovation clause in the building code is to be used for conversions. A digital vacancy register is meant to enable active management of retail space. The CDU wants to promote hybrid retail models and rethink last-mile parcel delivery together with logistics and retail companies.

The CDU wants to cement North Rhine-Westphalia as a leading location for video games and in the future also fund game production. Esports is to become more professional and be treated like sports under tax law.

The CDU wants to strengthen the video game industry. The state should also support the making of games. Esports should be treated like other sports. Esports means: people compete against each other in video games.

Formats such as the Games Summit and the Media Summit are to continue regularly, and the "Fusion Campus" and the NRW media network are to receive support. The industry's creativity is also to be used for education and job training. In esports, the CDU wants to apply know-how from traditional sports funding to enable dual careers, and to expand the eSports Player Foundation. It wants to press the federal government to put esports on equal footing with sports in the Fiscal Code. The platform describes the industry as a major economic factor with thousands of jobs.