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Minister: former East Germany needs a trillion

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Minister: former East Germany needs a trillion
Photo: DPA

Eastern Germany needs €1,000 billion in investment to bring it in line with the economic power of the west by 2030, the Thuringia state economy minister said on Monday.

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Matthias Machnig of the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) is calling for that cash to invested over the next 18 years, as part of his proposed "Strategy 2030," the business daily Handelsblatt reported.

“Two decades of reconstruction in the East have been worthwhile,” Machnig told the paper. “But it is nevertheless clear that the process of catching up has been exhausted to a certain degree.”

Machnig also called on the federal government to "rediscover" eastern Germany, basing his statements on the “Future East” report, issued by the international consultancy Roland Berger.

That report found that the former communist East Germany needed €1,000 billion in new investment to close the equity gap with the western part of the country by 2030.

It challenged the eastern states not to hesitate from demanding assistance from the federal government and the western states to help build up its regions with weaker infrastructure.

Roland Berger's CEO Martin Wittig also called on all states to make a joint effort in supporting the former East Germany, the Handelsblatt reports. “Then it would be realistic that the catching up could be achieved by 2030,” he says.

The Local/mbw

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