The AiF research network, which focuses on small and medium-sized industrial firms, has warned about a potential decline in the innovative strength of companies in the SME sector. In an increasingly competitive world, tax incentives alone will not be enough to strengthen Germany as a business location.
The governing coalition of the CDU/CSU and SPD wants to strengthen the "innovative SME sector." "But the words of the coalition must be followed by action," said AiF’s president, building contractor Sebastian Bauer. The funds for the Joint Industrial Research (IGF) funding program, for example, should be more reliably distributed, he said.
Medium-sized companies often don’t have their own large research departments. The Association of Industrial Research Associations (AiF) brings together companies and research bodies. The network of 100 research associations and 50,000 participating companies is intended to help SMEs access new technologies.
The Institute for the German Economy (IW) recently criticized the fact that in 2015 only around two thirds of medium-sized companies in Germany with up to 1,000 employees had regularly introduced new products. Five years earlier, the figure had been around 75 percent.
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