(12) In addition, the development funds that are freed up by the proposed reallocation should be used to establish an Equity Capital Fund for Venture Capital, which would serve to stabilize existing small and medium-size enterprises and to set up new, innovative enterprises.
(13) Financial problems inherited from the former GDR and undesirable developments caused by unification in the area of communal housing construction, as well as in wastewater treatment systems, should be cleared up by, among other things, the consolidation of enterprises and capital write-downs. To that end, the Redemption Fund for Inherited Burdens [Erblastungstilgungsfond] should be reopened.
(14) But corresponding savings measures at the state level are also required. This task for the Länder is essential in expanding the financial leeway of the Länder and the municipalities in promoting business.
(15) The New Länder must be accorded the greatest possible leeway so that each Land can scale back its bureaucracy according to its own needs. The “Artikelgesetz”* proposed by Helmut Schmidt would be a suitable instrument to this end.
(16) The special situation on the East German labor market also calls for regularized, additional flexibility, as well as the use of wage supplementation measures, in order to also provide labor-market access to groups of people who can no longer be retrained.
(17) For the implementation of the indicated measures, time-specific targets, control mechanisms, and timely, unvarnished reporting should be put in place.
(18) To that end, better organizational solutions are needed in the federal government. The coordination of the tasks of the various ministries and the implementation of decisions must be improved. To achieve this, it would be useful if the federal government charged a person with coordinating these tasks, this being his sole responsibility. This person should have the continuous support of a committee of experts with practical experience.
(19) Given the magnitude and importance of the tasks for all of Germany, the Gesprächskreis (roundtable) proposes that the measures be anchored in an “Economic Rebuilding Pact for the East,” in which the federal government, the Länder, parties to collective wage agreements, and representatives from the research community should participate jointly.
The Gesprächskreis assumes that the reorientation of goals and instruments proposed here, and a stronger political focus, can not only make the rebuilding work more effective, but can also serve to strengthen East German citizens’ confidence in the future of their region once again, ameliorate the outmigration, and enhance the attractiveness of investments there.
* The term “Artikelgesetz,” or article law, refers to a law that changes several laws; that is, in addition to creating new legislation, it also amends existing legislation. In a 1997 article in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit, former chancellor Helmut Schmidt criticized the massive number of legal rules that hindered business and the creation of new jobs. Among others, he called upon politicians to only pass laws that eliminated or simplified existing rules and regulations – eds.
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