FDP on the economy

The FDP wants to make it easier to found or take over a business and to turn Hesse into a stronger start-up location. Plans include a statewide founding strategy, more venture capital, more founder scholarships and an entrepreneurial culture in schools and universities.

The FDP wants more people to start a company. There should be more money and less red tape for this. Schools should teach about starting a business. People who take over an existing business should also get help.

Economic development tools are to be geared more toward founders. For takeovers of existing firms, the FDP plans dedicated funding programs and more advice together with the chambers of commerce, plus a new business-succession category in the Hessian Founders Prize. Entrepreneurship is to appear in curricula, teaching materials and teacher training, and failure should no longer carry a stigma. The platform notes that, according to the EY Start-up Barometer, Berlin attracts more than 45 times as much investment as Hesse.

The FDP wants to establish regional Centers of Innovation that combine start-up support, digitalization for small and midsize firms, and vocational education. They are meant to give young people outside the big urban areas prospects in new technologies.

The FDP wants new centers for ideas and technology. They should also be set up outside the big cities. Founders and small firms get help there. Trainees, skilled workers and students can learn there too.

The centers would have three tasks: supporting founders and spin-offs from around universities, helping small and midsize companies adopt digital processes and technologies, and bringing digital topics into training and continuing education. They would be open to apprentices, experienced skilled workers and students alike. Close cooperation with schools, vocational schools, vocational academies and universities is planned.

The FDP wants to reduce bureaucratic requirements for founders and companies as far as possible and bundle contact with authorities in one place. The state audit office would regularly review laws and regulations for the red tape they cause.

Companies should have less paperwork. They should enter their data digitally only once. One contact point should guide them through the authorities. The state audit office should check laws. It should say what can be made simpler.

Applications, forms and data would be recorded digitally just once, which the platform says saves time and money for companies and government. The single point of contact that guides firms through public administration is to be strengthened. The audit office's duties would be widened following the example of other states. It would propose ways to simplify and digitize rules.

The FDP wants to make the Frankfurt-Rhine-Main financial center a priority of state policy. The headquarters of financial regulator BaFin would move from Bonn to Frankfurt, and the planned EU anti-money-laundering authority (AMLA) would be based there.

Frankfurt is an important place for banks. The FDP wants to strengthen this financial center. Germany's financial regulator should move from Bonn to Frankfurt. A new EU agency against money laundering should also come to Frankfurt.

The FDP aims to improve Frankfurt's standing against other major European financial centers. For the AMLA bid it proposes a joint task force of city, state and federal government. The state would also support a quick start on the new building for the European School in Frankfurt. In the platform's view, the previous state government neglected the financial center.

The FDP wants to turn Frankfurt into a center for financial technology start-ups. It proposes a "German Tech Festival" modeled on Singapore's fintech event. It also wants euro clearing to take place in Frankfurt in the future.

The FDP wants more young finance companies in Frankfurt. It plans a big industry meeting there. It is called the "German Tech Festival." Founders, banks and investors would meet there.

The program says Frankfurt has slipped in fintech rankings and that start-ups in this field mostly form in Berlin. The planned festival is meant to bring together founders, the banking and insurance sector, and investors. The FDP sees a deeper European capital markets union as important so that small and medium-sized firms can find financing more easily. Euro clearing, meaning the settlement of euro transactions, should be located in Frankfurt for reasons of location and financial stability. The region should also become known as a brand for quality of life in order to attract international professionals.

The FDP wants to make Hesse Europe's most innovative industrial location. A new "House of Production" would bring business and science together to develop digital manufacturing technology. The chemical and pharmaceutical sector and research on autonomous vehicles would also get more support.

The FDP wants to strengthen industry in Hesse. Companies and researchers would work together in a new center. It is called the "House of Production." It deals with digital technology for factories. The pharma industry would also get more help.

The planned "House of Production" is meant to develop practical, cross-sector solutions for the smart factory. The health industry initiative would be strengthened and linked more closely with the "House of Pharma." Research funding would focus more on pharmacology, chemistry, biotechnology and medical technology, and start-ups in biotech and medicine would get priority. For the automotive and logistics sectors, the FDP wants to expand research on autonomous vehicles on roads, rail, in the air and on water, and to strengthen the House of Logistics and Mobility. The concerns of manufacturing would get more weight in state policy and in the Bundesrat.

The FDP wants the master craftsman title and the master's degree to be treated as equal and wants training for the former funded like a master's program. It calls for a master craftsman bonus at the level paid in Bavaria. It also wants to ease business succession in the trades and expand dual study programs across Hesse.

The FDP wants to strengthen the skilled trades. People training to become master craftsmen should get money from the state. The amount should match what Bavaria pays. There should also be more dual study programs. In these, people learn at a company and at a college.

According to the program, more than 11,000 businesses in Hesse will need a successor in the coming years, so the FDP puts a focus on business succession in the trades. Apprentices with gaps in their schooling would get dedicated support programs. Shop classes in schools would be strengthened, and the vocational Abitur would combine training with access to higher education. Dual study programs modeled on "Studium plus" would grow. Decentralized dual programs would be set up statewide so that mid-sized firms can find skilled workers in rural areas too.

The FDP calls for a clear commitment by the state to Messe Frankfurt. Existing trade fairs should stay in Frankfurt and new events should be won. New event formats should also be supported, as digital offerings are changing the trade fair business.

The FDP wants to strengthen the Frankfurt trade fair company. The state should clearly back it. Trade fairs should stay in Frankfurt. New fairs should also come.

The program describes Messe Frankfurt as the world's largest trade fair company with its own grounds and cites revenue of more than 700 million euros in 2019. It says the company generates 3.6 billion euros in revenue in the region, making it the most important driver of regional economic development. The state should help the company attract new events. Because of digital formats and changed travel habits, the FDP wants to support innovative event ideas, also with a view to tourism, hotels and restaurants.

The FDP wants to make Hesse's public procurement law simpler for mid-sized companies and remove bureaucratic hurdles. Additional state requirements such as a state minimum wage should not apply to public contracts. In the party's view, procurement law should be limited to ensuring fair competition.

The state gives contracts to companies. There are many rules for this. The FDP wants to make these rules simpler. Small and mid-sized companies should have an easier time. Hesse should not add its own extra rules, such as its own minimum wage.

The program notes that when the Federal Ministry of Justice asked for ideas on cutting red tape in January 2023, many suggestions concerned procurement law. The FDP rejects using procurement rules to pursue political goals and cites a fixed state minimum wage as an example. It considers the existing legal social and environmental standards sufficient. Fewer special rules are meant to save effort, which the party says also benefits the public sector and taxpayers.

The FDP wants to give tourism more weight in state policy and to concentrate responsibilities within the administration. Restaurant licensing law should contain fewer requirements so that investment pays off. In state planning, tourism interests should count for more, including relative to wind energy expansion.

The FDP wants to strengthen tourism in Hesse. Restaurants and inns should face fewer rules. Applying for funding should become easier. Wind turbines should not automatically matter more than tourism projects.

The FDP wants to examine how responsibilities for tourism in the state administration can be concentrated so there is one central point of contact. For the state's tourism policy framework, it wants to check whether funding applications can be simplified. Travel regions that cross state borders should be promoted together with neighboring states. The program sees restaurants and family-run lodging businesses, especially in rural areas, as places of social cohesion. For tourism infrastructure, wind turbines should not get automatic priority.

The FDP wants to change Hesse's shop opening law so that stores can reliably use the four permitted Sunday shopping days. To do so, the requirement that an opening be tied to a specific occasion would be removed. The party also wants to examine whether more Sunday shopping days are possible.

Stores in Hesse may open on four Sundays a year. Unclear rules often prevent this. The FDP wants to change the law. Then stores can safely open on these Sundays. The FDP will also check whether more Sundays are possible.

The program argues that online shops are open at all times while local retailers are restricted by opening rules. It says unclear provisions have led to many Sunday shopping days being canceled. The occasion requirement currently means a Sunday opening must be linked to a special event; it would be removed from the law. The FDP expects this to give customers and retailers clarity and to strengthen retail in city centers.

The FDP wants every university to have a start-up and innovation center. The aim is to make spin-offs easier, move research results into companies faster and let universities share more in patent revenue.

Every university should get a center for start-ups. Researchers get help there when they want to found a company. Research ideas should reach companies faster. Universities should earn money from their inventions.

According to the platform, handling patents, passing results on to companies and setting up cooperation projects takes a lot of time and is currently done on the side. Universities may form alliances to run these centers. The platform wants to examine whether a private-law company form would work better, including for access to funding.

The FDP wants to expand support for the creative industries in Hesse and clearly assign responsibilities within the state government. According to the platform, Hesse ranks near the bottom nationally on such support even though the sector is the state's third most important industry.

The creative industries include music, books, film and video games. The FDP wants to support this sector more. There should be clear contacts in the ministries. Founders should get advice and easier access to money.

Cultural matters would sit with the science and arts ministry and business matters with the economics ministry, with coordination between the two. Funding programs would cover the whole sector and include film and games funding; the remit of HessenFilm und Medien GmbH would be widened. Plans include an overarching 'Houses of' strategy for sector network hubs, more creative hubs, support for start-up centers and a virtual networking platform. State development banks are to ease access to financing, including EU funds.

The FDP supports open, rules-based world trade and free trade agreements such as CETA and the Mercosur deal. At the same time, excessive economic dependence on individual countries should be avoided or reduced so that the EU is more resilient in crises.

The FDP is for free trade between countries. It supports trade deals with Canada and with countries in South America. But Europe should not depend too much on single countries. Raw materials should come from more countries. Europe should also make more itself.

The platform commits to a fair, rules-based exchange of goods and services. It cites CETA with Canada and the already negotiated agreement with the Mercosur states as examples. For raw materials and intermediate products, the FDP aims for a wider spread of supplier countries and more domestic production.

The FDP wants to bring a video game trade fair to Hesse, preferably to Frankfurt. It cites the importance of the industry and the software companies already based there.

The FDP wants a trade fair for video games in Hesse. Frankfurt would be the best place for it. Many companies from this industry are already there. The FDP thinks the industry is important.

The platform describes the games industry as an important part of the creative economy, with major companies in the Rhine-Main area. It points to past events at Frankfurt's Waldstadion with more than 55,000 spectators. The FDP sees Frankfurt as the ideal location for Germany's games industry and for esports clubs.