FDP on the economy

The FDP wants to give more support to companies founded out of universities. To do so, an easily accessible founders' fund and a statewide network for would-be founders are to be created. Exchange between universities and business is also to grow.

Some people at universities want to start a company. The FDP wants to help them. There should be a fund with money for this. Access should be simple. There should also be a network for founders.

Alumni, employees and students are all to be supported. Universities are to receive funds to develop research results into business ideas together with the founders. Chambers and business associations are to be closely involved in the exchange with business.

The FDP calls for more free trade agreements, arguing that Bremen, as an export-heavy state with ports and logistics, benefits from them. Its long-term vision is a free trade zone of all liberal democracies.

Bremen sells a lot of goods abroad. So the FDP wants more free trade deals. The ports should benefit from this. Rules for the environment and consumers should stay as strict as today.

The platform notes that in 2021 Bremen again had the highest export ratio of any German state. The FDP highlights its federal-level push to ratify CETA, the EU-Canada agreement, and wants further free trade zones over time. Negotiations should be more transparent so that agreements gain broad public support. The party wants to keep the environmental and consumer protection standards reached in the EU and Germany.

The FDP wants to make starting a business simpler and more digital and to ease spin-offs from universities. A start-up strategy, relief from chamber fees, and more venture capital are meant to attract more founders to the state.

The FDP wants more people to start companies in Bremen. This should be easier and work online. New companies should pay no required chamber fees for five years. A fund should support young companies with money.

Founders would be exempt from mandatory chamber fees during their first five years. A start-up strategy would bundle measures whose success is reviewed regularly and adjusted as needed. The FDP wants to support venture capital, for example through tax advantages. In addition, it proposes a public-private fund for start-ups in which all Bremen residents could invest, even with very small amounts. The platform sees innovation and investment in new lines of business as a precondition for the state's prosperity.

The FDP wants to promote company relocations and start-ups in environmentally and climate-friendly industries, especially in Bremerhaven. A green economy start-up center is to be built in the planned "Lune Delta" business park, with a focus on hydrogen and synthetic fuels.

The FDP wants to support companies that protect the environment and climate. A center for new companies should be built in Bremerhaven. Research on hydrogen should also happen there. Hydrogen is a gas that can supply energy. This should bring new jobs.

The start-up center in the "Lune Delta" business park is meant as a flagship project and should enable research on power-to-X, meaning the conversion of electricity into other energy carriers. Companies would test new technologies for generating, converting, and storing energy there, as in a real-world lab. Hydrogen research is to be stepped up together with Fraunhofer IWES and the university of applied sciences. Municipal companies should use hydrogen in pilot projects, as well as synthetic fuels (e-fuels) for vehicles, ships, and aircraft. The platform names suitable supply infrastructure as the first prerequisite.

The FDP wants to designate new business parks faster, reactivate brownfield sites, and expand existing areas. The land should be well connected to transport routes and sold to businesses rather than granted under long-term ground leases.

Companies need space. The FDP says Bremen does not have enough of it. The FDP wants to create new land for companies faster. The land should get good roads. Companies should be able to buy the land.

According to the platform, companies have stayed away or left because they found no suitable sites. Brownfields such as the Funkschneise, the Vulkan site, and the freight yard are to be further reactivated; an 8,500-square-meter plot at the airport now used for parties should become commercial land again. For small and mid-sized firms, central sites in mixed-use locations should also be possible. The FDP names completing the A281 ring, the Weser tunnel, and repairing commercial transport routes as core elements of transport access. In Bremerhaven it wants to cooperate with neighboring municipalities in Lower Saxony, especially on a joint business park with Geestland in the north of the city.

The FDP wants to keep developing Bremen and Bremerhaven as tourist destinations with public investment. It regards the Bettensteuer (hotel bed tax) as harmful to the industry because it slows growth.

The FDP wants more visitors in Bremen and Bremerhaven. The city should spend money on attractive places. Boats with visitors should get more places to dock. The FDP thinks the tax on hotel stays is harmful.

Bremen's city center and Schnoor quarter and Bremerhaven's Havenwelten and Schaufenster Fischereihafen are to remain attractive destinations. The FDP favors a circular walkway at Schaufenster Fischereihafen and supports an autonomous shuttle ferry across the harbor basin. During the maritime festival days and the SAIL event, Bremerhaven should have Hein Mück pedestrian signals at the Old Harbor, New Harbor, and main station. Docking points at tourist sites are to be created for boat and river cruise tourism. The platform sees the bed tax as an example of skimming off a positive trend instead of supporting it.

The FDP wants to get small and mid-sized companies to plan their succession early, since many businesses face a generational handover. Advice, good examples, and attention to financing are meant to make company transfers easier.

Many company owners in Bremen will retire soon. Then the company needs a new owner. The FDP wants companies to plan this early. There should be advice and help. Employees should also be able to take over a company.

As a model, the platform cites the moderator concept established in Baden-Württemberg, which supports the chambers in their work. Successful handovers are to be publicly highlighted as examples. Beyond advice, the financing of successions should also be considered. Support for other forms of transfer is to be examined, such as takeovers through employee ownership, accompanied by the chambers of commerce and crafts and Bremen's economic development agency. The FDP sees this as a building block for securing the economic structure and jobs.

The FDP rejects the state training fund planned by Bremen's government, into which companies with more than five employees would pay a levy. The charge would add to companies' burdens at a time of rising costs. In the party's view, the problem is not a lack of willingness to train but a lack of suitable applicants.

Bremen's government plans a fund for job training. Companies with more than five workers would have to pay into it. The FDP is against this. It says companies want to train young people but cannot find suitable applicants. It blames poor schooling for this.

According to the program, the Senate adopted key points for the fund in fall 2022, with a start planned for the 2024/25 training year. The FDP points out that the share of apprentices in Bremen is higher than in Berlin and Hamburg and above the national average. Open positions stay vacant, it says, because many young people's basic schooling is insufficient. The party sees this as a task of the state that must not be passed on to companies through a levy.

The FDP wants the state to invest more in maintaining, expanding, and digitizing Bremen's ports and to speed up planning procedures. Operations would go digital and cargo handling would be automated. This is meant to cut costs and strengthen the ports against international competitors.

The FDP wants more money for the ports in Bremen and Bremerhaven. Quay walls and facilities should be renewed. Planning should go faster. Work at the port should be digital and use more automation.

The quays of the Stromkaje container terminal are to be renovated in the medium term, and the Neustädter Hafen and the industrial ports are to be upgraded as well. The platform calls for adequate funding for the ports and swift implementation of planned projects. According to the FDP, lowering costs involves digital operations, automated cargo handling, and more efficient, cleaner equipment. The party says tasks will change but port jobs can be secured. It names the western European ports and Mediterranean ports as competitors.

The FDP calls for an inventory of port land and how it is used, along with a flexible land-use plan. After the failure of the Bremerhaven offshore terminal, existing sites are to be used better and commercial land near the ports made available. A dedicated terminal for heavy and oversized cargo is to be created.

The FDP wants to check how land in the port is used. The land should be used better. Companies should be able to set up near the port. Very heavy and large goods should get their own loading area.

The platform views the long legal dispute over the offshore terminal as a loss of time and staff capacity. For the "high and heavy" segment, the FDP considers container terminal CT1, the ABC peninsula, or the new west quay of the fishing port suitable. Heavy cargo, general cargo, and offshore goods could be handled there, including for the disposal and repowering of wind turbines. Automation is meant to help use container-handling space more efficiently.

The FDP wants the seaports of northwestern Germany to work together more closely in order to hold their own globally and win back market share. It backs a national port strategy and its swift implementation at the federal level. Politicians should limit themselves to the essentials in negotiations.

The ports in northern Germany should work together more. This should help them compete with ports in other countries. The FDP supports one shared plan for all German ports. Politicians should only deal with the most important points.

In the platform's view, looking at each port separately weakens all German locations. A holistic management approach is to be part of the national strategy. Ships should be handled where it makes the most sense economically, ecologically, technically, and nautically. The FDP welcomes cooperation between companies as long as it complies with competition law.

The FDP wants to position Bremerhaven as the supply port for a floating rocket launch platform in the North Sea. It expects benefits for Bremen's aerospace industry and for the port.

A launch platform for small rockets could be built in the North Sea. The FDP wants Bremerhaven to be its home port. Ships from there would supply the platform. This should help companies and the port.

The idea concerns small rockets, known as microlaunchers, that carry satellites of up to one ton into space. According to the platform, German companies lead in this technology, but the expertise could move abroad if there is no launch site. A platform at sea would need logistics and skilled staff, which Bremerhaven is meant to provide. The platform points to a concept under review at the federal level with public start-up costs of 30 million euros, to be paid by the federal government. The state of Bremen is to keep pushing for it.

The FDP wants to change the rules on store opening on Sundays and public holidays so that shopping is possible on Sundays too. It cites competition from online retail and Bremen's appeal as reasons; stores are to decide for themselves whether to open.

The FDP wants stores to be allowed to open on Sundays. Many people shop online on the weekend. Stores in the city should not lose these customers. Each store should decide for itself whether to open on Sunday.

According to the platform, many people do their shopping on weekends, mostly with online retailers. At the same time, it sees demand for a stroll through town or a museum visit on Sundays. This is tied to the goal of avoiding vacancies: investors and local businesses are to be able to rely on binding statements about downtown development and accessibility. There would be no obligation to open.