German business seeks contemporary begin in difficult occasions – DW – 03/29/2025 | EUROtoday

More than 4,000 exhibitors are anticipated to showcase their improvements at what’s billed because the world’s largest industrial commerce honest, with guests from roughly 150 international locations anticipated.

As in earlier years, the honest is a should on the calander particularly of small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) from Germany and elsewhere, who’re aiming to current their newest improvements — with the principle focus this 12 months being on robotics, mechanical engineering, power-train expertise, and vitality manufacturing.

Held in tough financial occasions, the honest within the capital of the German regional state of Lower Saxony desires to “promote optimism,” says Jochen Köckler, CEO of the honest organizers, Deutsche Messe AG.

“We want to provide a platform where politics and business can exchange ideas to discuss the framework conditions necessary for success,” he informed DW, with the principle thrust being on constructing “trust in investments” and, above all, to “convey a sense of optimism.”

Beleagered Canada is companion

This 12 months’s so-called companion nation on the honest is Canada. Although the choice was made two years in the past, the title has come to be notably well timed given the North American’s fierce commerce spat with the US administration of Donald Trump.

Just not too long ago, Washington has imposed larger import duties on Canadian items in a commerce warfare that can be affecting the European Union.

“Given the geopolitical tensions, we are especially pleased that a country like Canada is the partner country this year,” Wolfgang Weber, CEO of the German Electrical and Digital Industry Association (ZVEI), informed DW.

Speaking with DW, Thilo Brodtmann, managing director of the German Mechanical Engineering Industry Association (VDMA), shares the view, saying Canada’s commerce honest partnership is a helpful alternative.

“We hope that the CETA free trade agreement [between Canada and the EU] … along with the partnership at the Hanover fair, will further intensify trade between the EU and Canada. Since Canada has not been treated well by Mr. Trump, they will likely look for other markets,” stated Brodtmann.

The VDMA official described present EU-Canada ties as a “door wide open” that either side now have the possibility to “walk through.”

Leaderships in limbo

Hanover honest additionally takes place at a time of political change, with the management of each Canada and Germany at the moment in limbo.

In earlier years, authorities leaders the likes of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel or ex-US President Barack Obama used to open the honest throughout  visits.

This 12 months, nevertheless, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been voted out of workplace not too long ago and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has resigned. Their doubtless successors haven’t but been offcially inaugurated.

After all, for the captains of business gathered in Hanover, the presence of politicians appears to be the least they’re focussing their consideration on. What’s at the moment rating supreme of their minds is definitely the German parliament’s latest resolution to scrap constitutional limits to contemporary authorities borrowing which is ready to unlock a whopping €500 billion ($541 billion) in particular funds for infrastructure investments.

Money to reconcile economic system and atmosphere

VDMA chief Brodtmann is now anticipating a “massive wave of orders,” for which the commerce honest is strictly the fitting venue to make first offers. “The fair can provide a boost, and we are confident that something will end up in our wallets, meaning our order books.”

ZVEI Chief Wolfgang Weber notably welcomes the truth that local weather safety is a excessive precedence within the funding bundle — a precondition set by Germany’s Greens occasion in alternate for permitting the bundle go by way of parliament.

And so, the subsequent authorities, doubtless led by conservative chief Friedrich Merz, must spent €100 billion of the additional funding on reaching Germany’s bold local weather objectives.

“I think it’s truly important for Germany to show the world with the investment that climate protection and economic viability can be brought together,” Weber stated.

German economic system in dire straits

While Germany is at the moment on monitor of assembly its local weather objectives, the nation’s economic system has been thrown utterly out of stability. At the top of the outgoing authorities coalition — comprising the environmentalist Greens, the liberal Free Democrats, and the leftist Social Democrats — Europe’s largest economic system is heading into a 3rd 12 months of recession in a row.

Hanover honest chief Jochen Köckler, nevertheless, warns towards pessimism saying that Germany needs to be “careful not to undersell ourselves” due to the dangerous financial information. “The message should be that [the reputation of] ‘Made in Germany’ is very strong, and we won’t back down from global competition,” he stated.

Köckler even sees historic parallels to 1947, the 12 months when Hannover Messe was established as an organization and model.

With World War II simply over for 2 years on the time, the British occupying forces aimed to stimulate the German economic system by showcasing the potential of German entrepreneurs and staff to the world. The plan labored, leading to export contracts price almost $32 million (€29.5 million) in that 12 months.

Therefore, ZVEI’s Weber thinks that whereas the German business could also be struggling in the intervening time, its technological management stays largely intact. “We have integrated automation and digitization into industrial production, significantly advancing efficiency.”

The hottest subject at this 12 months’s commerce honest, nevertheless, is the usage of synthetic intelligence (AI) in business, says Köckler. But making AI a central theme for the honest is not windowdressing “just for the sake of it,” he famous. “Visitors come to the fair to find technologies that will keep them competitive back home.”

This article was initially written in German.