CAPTION: Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser speaks at a press conference about the foundation of a technology center in Siemensstadt. (picture alliance/Paul Zinken/dpa)
The head of German industrial giant Siemens on Wednesday expressed concern about a split in society due to digitalisation.
"How do we manage to integrate an increasingly split society?" Siemens President and CEO Joe Kaeser said in Berlin, in view of the fourth industrial revolution.
At the same time, Kaeser called for Germany to make bold progress on digitalisation. He said he has been bothered for some time already by people flying to San Francisco when they think they have to see innovation.
"Here in Germany, especially in Berlin, there were already things happening before there were even garages in Silicon Valley," he said.
The US technology centre in Silicon Valley, often cited as a model, has some undesirable developments in Kaeser's opinion. The 60 kilometres between San Francisco and San Jose is the area with the highest level of homelessness in the United States.
"So there are multibillionaires, whom we all glorify, and many people who could actually work, but have no home," Kaeser said.
This should not become the new socio-economic standard, "but we are well on the way there," he added. Also in the German city of Munich and its surroundings, it is difficult for people "who have a completely normal job" to find reasonable housing.
Siemens wants to do things differently with its industrial site in Berlin, where not only research facilities are to be built, but also housing.
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