Economics Minister Schuster Has Good Reason to be Bullish on Thuringia

Franz Schuster, Thuringia’s Economics Minister

The east German state of Thuringia ranks at the top of the list in terms of its rate of economic growth of all new federal states.

Since 1991, the state’s economy has grown by more than 60%. That fact has earned the state the "Economic Model State of the East" award that was presented by the Institute of the German Economy in Cologne last year.

The reason, says Thuringia’s Economics Minister, Mr. Franz Schuster, was because of the state’s prudent use of the federal government’s "push start" program that was launched after reunification. Under the subsidy program, 69 permanent jobs per thousand inhabitants were created in the state. Today, Thuringia can boast the best industrial job ratio in all of the Eastern States of Germany.

Since October 1999, Shuster’s department has been put in charge of both job promotion and economic policy to ensure continued success. An important indicator of growth has been in exports. The percentage of exports have climbed from an average of 20% to nearly 50% making the state of Thuringia number one in eastern Germany. "It is the aim of Thuringia’s economic policy to make the Free State a location for modern technologies," Shuster says. "Top priority is given to the intensive promotion and introduction of new products, technologies, and production processes."

There are four universities, 20 research facilities and work in close cooperation with the private sector, five centers for the transfer of technology and will ans eight technology and start-up centers.

Another advantage of locating a business in Thuringia, says Shuster, is the state’s balanced industrial infrastructure. Both modern and traditional industries are represented to about the same extent. The state is strong in the areas of machine building, construction of cars and other vehicles, electrical engineering, precision mechanics, optics, EDP equipment, metalworking, food processing, glass and ceramics as well as timber and furniture making.

The optical center in the town of Jena is know around the world. The Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH, Jenoptik AG, and the Jenaer Glaswerke GmbH manufacture state-of-the-art products that are used in precision engineering and metrology, microscopy as well as materials made of high quality glass and ceramics. As reported elsewhere in this report, Jena has also become a center for biotechnology.

The structural change in the economy has yielded a thriving electronics industry as well. The greater Erfurt-Ilmenau-Jena triangle has developed a network of companies that particular competence in the field of micro-technology.

Another exciting development in the state’s economy has been in the field of information technology. One company to watch is called 4D-Vision GmbH. The company, founded in 1998 in Jena, has developed a method to display 3-D images on a specially designed screen without having to use any specially viewing aids such as goggles or spectacles.

At the center of this method is the so-called wavelength-selective filter array that is mounted in front of the screen.

On September 20, 2000, the 4-D Vision GmbH company wrote television history when its founder, Armin Grasnki, presented a 3D-film sequence of about 70 seconds during the stereoscopics forum a the "photokina" fair in Cologne on a standard set of a 3D-screen.

The devise was enthusiastically received and some predict this technology will lead to 3D television.

In manufacturing, the Thuringian automotive sector has been very successful. General Motors’ Opel subsidiary builds cars in Eisenach. The state is also home of 33 middle-sized and larger automotive suppliers and manufacturers, among them some of the renowned representatives of German engineering. Per capita sales in the branch of industry, says Shuster, are already higher than the average in western Germany.

Thuringia is also attracting businesses due to its central location and excellent road and railway system. Seven of the 17 traffic projects that have been carried out since reunification have included Thuringia.

These projects have already greatly improved the capacity of the motorway network. In the near future, he predicts, it will be possible to reach a freeway junction from almost anywhere in the state within 30 minutes.—