BERLIN (AP) — A group of dozens of companies pledged Monday to invest at least 631 billion euros ($733 billion) in Germany over the next three years, sending a signal of confidence in Europe’s biggest economy as the new government tries to breathe new life into it.
The economy has shrunk for the past two years and is expected to stagnate this year. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s administration has made revitalizing it a top priority since it took office May 6.
It has launched a program to encourage investment and set up a 500 billion euro fund to pour money into Germany’s creaking infrastructure over the next 12 years. It is promising to cut red tape and speed up the country’s lagging digitization.
On Monday, Merz welcomed representatives of an initiative titled “Made for Germany” to the chancellery to send a signal of confidence from and to private investors. The group currently includes 61 companies from across the economy, among them industrial conglomerate Siemens and financial giant Deutsche Bank.
“The investments by the initiative are a very powerful signal that we are now experiencing a shift in sentiment and consolidating it,” Merz said. “The message … is very clear: Germany is back. It’s worth investing in Germany again. We are not a location of the past, but a location of the present and above all the future.”
He stressed that private investment is crucial to encouraging growth.
The overall figure pledged Monday includes at least some already planned investments. Merz said the plans include investments in new facilities and in modernizing infrastructure, in research and development.
Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing praised the new government as being “determined to end the reform backlog that has slowed us down for too long.” But he said that it still needs to do more, and the companies “encouraged” the government “to continue the course of reform.”
“Our priorities are clear: We want economic growth, we want to strengthen Germany’s competitiveness, we want to defend or further expand our technological leadership and we want to bring our infrastructure into the digital age,” Siemens CEO Roland Busch said.