ILFA and other industry representatives from Lower Saxony visit Lower Saxony’s Economics Minister Olaf Lies

In mid-February 2024, a delegation of high-profile business representatives accepted the invitation from Lower Saxony’s Minister for Economic Affairs, Construction, Transport and Digitalisation, Olaf Lies, to discuss current economic issues. The guest house of the Lower Saxony state government in Hanover provided an appropriate setting to jointly develop requirements for a resilient Lower Saxony economy. The topics discussed included the Supply Chain Act, calculable energy prices and long-term commitments for local industry.

ILFA CEO Thomas Michels emphasised the role of SMEs as important innovators and pointed out where the domestic economy has to accept significant competitive disadvantages compared to competing foreign industrial companies. Only through close co-operation between business and politics can framework conditions be created that enable long-term growth of the domestic economy. Particularly in sensitive areas such as defence technology, medical technology, digitalisation and automation, future-proof strategies must be developed that promote and enable important innovations in Germany.

We would like to thank Olaf Lies for the constructive and successful dialogue! With him, we have a competent dialogue partner at our side who asks the right questions, addresses the issues and consistently implements them. This is how politics and business work on an equal footing.