News

26.09.2008
German Business Portal in Latin America

The Expo Alemania is the key trade fair for German products, services and innovations in Santiago de Chile. From September  25th through 27th, 150 exhibitors and 20,000 visitors will meet to discuss options for cooperating across borders. Experts from the German Business Portal will be on hand to answer your questions about business in Germany and to discuss how the portal can be of service to you.

The ExpoDeutschland's goal is to promote the cultural, economic and intellectual exchange between Germany and Columbia. The German Business Portal is exhibiting this year from September 29th through October 4th in Bogotá along with representatives from logistics, environmental management and public service institutions.

08.09.2008
German travel agents will expand their customer advisory services

The European Parliament has adopted a new legislation to improve the service quality of travel agencies. All customers interested in a specific itinerary must be informed about the cheapest way of transportation. In Germany, this would be a comparison between railway service and aviation. Travel agents must point out the lowest price when asked for a specific connection. A new management information system will enable them to calculate routes, including local bus connections, in the whole of Europe.
This new set of rules puts pressure on airlines and transportation companies to provide agents with reliable quotations.  In the past, companies made different offers to wholesalers and private customers who were willing to buy online tickets. Experts expect that fares will decline when the new rules take effect next year, since customers will be able to survey the market more easily.

15.08.2008
Germany: Worldwide Leader in Solar Power Generation

Since the introduction of the Feed-in Law in Germany, there has been an increasing amount of solar panel installations in German households. The Feed-in tariff pays households with solar panels a fixed above-market rate for selling power back to the grid for 20 years. Today, there are nearly half a million households with a solar panel. This represents 50 per cent of the world's installed solar capacity. According to industry estimates, the solar energy sector employs around 60,000 employees, and is expecting this year a revenue increase of 50% over 2007, from 7 to 13 billion Euros.

13.08.2008
Despite extreme weather conditions, energy suppliers consider the German coast as a good place for wind energy plants

Due to current energy saving projects in Germany, a number of multinational power companies are paying much attention to offshore technology. To protect the scenic coastline of Wadden Sea in the north of Germany, plants may only be erected outside a 12-nautical mile-zone. As a consequence, large wind power plants and foundations will be necessary in this deep water area (up to 30 meters). Especially in this location, windmills have to cope with frequent storms. The bad weather prevents technicians from maintaining the plants as necessary. Nevertheless, wind power companies accept the challenge. RWE for example, is planning to build at least three big wind farms in the future. One of them is in Vattenfall on the Isle of Norderney. Here, construction start has had to be postponed several times due to the continuous bad weather conditions.

18.07.2008
Tax Handling in Germany

The Federal Central Tax Office conducts a special program for foreign investors to make tax regulations more transparent. If investors pose questions to the Office, the tax experts might give binding information about the future handling of a specific case. Entrepreneurs can thus get reliable facts on tax issues involved in a project that hasn't been realized yet.
Though any foreign investor can contact the Office's Tax Information Centre to pose his questions, some preconditions have to be met to receive a binding answer by the Office. Furthermore, The Office can state only on common taxes such as income tax, corporation tax, solidarity surcharge, value-added tax and insurance tax. If a business is realized, taxation is administrated by one of the many regional tax offices under authority of the federal states.
The Office has published an info-sheet on its website. You can contact the Office's help desk for foreign investors by e-mail: service@germantaxes.info

14.07.2008
Germany facilitates Incorporation Requirements

The German parliament has adopted a new law to make on Private Limited Companies more attractive to small and medium-sized businesses. The bill expedites significantly the forming of a company. The minimum capital will account EUR 25,000 as before, but a start up without almost any capital will be possible, too.
If an entrepreneur chooses the latter, the company must retain one quarter of a term's profits until sufficient capital is accumulated. Until then, shareholders will not receive the full distribution of dividends. The costs involved in founding such a company are little. Around 150 Euros must be spent for enrollment and on the notarization of the company's corporate charter. The reform aims to abolish a competitive disadvantage of German Private Legal Companies in relation to foreign legal structures like the English limited company. By facilitating and accelerating the process of starting a business, the government hopes the German legal form will attract foreign entrepreneurs to choose it even for businesses in their home countries.

08.07.2008
Logistics: Freight Service in Germany

The economic situation of the majority of the German transport companies has improved in the last two years. Nevertheless, the freight traffic industry is facing new and serious challenges due to the increasing energy prices. Freight traffic in Germany rose significantly in 2007, but not as strong as in 2006. The volume of cargo handled by road, rail and inland transportation in 2007 increased by 3.5%, with the traffic performance in terms of tonnage per kilometer (tkm) rising by 4.3%. The increase in the area of international road haulage was slightly slowed down by a decline in domestic transport in the second half of 2007. Further information coming soon. 

19.6.2008
Germany is the second largest manufacturer of medication produced with genetic engineering

A recent study made by the Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) shows that in the last years, Germany has become an attractive location for pharmaceutical companies. The report describes Germany's highly qualified labor force -scientists and trained assistants-, and the country's top expertise in high-tech production as its most important strength in the industry. Furthermore, suppliers of new products can access the German market immediately after their product has been licensed. The study also points out that there is a increase in the number of patent applications in comparison to other countries. This includes a large amount of companies that are now producing medication by using genetic engineering technology. (HWWI-Survey as PDF - German only)
28.5.2008
Less Economic Crime in Germany

''Germany is among the safest countries in the world'', reported Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble at a news conference last week, while issuing the national crime statistics of 2007. The reported cases declined by 0.3 percent to a total number of 6.3 million incidents per year.
Another positive trend is the significant decline of economic crime which totaled 87.934 cases last year - 8.3 percent less than 2006. Insider trading alone was down by half in comparison to last year. Nevertheless, experts claim that the number of unreported cases might still be high.
The development of juvenile crime is less promising. ''Excessive alcohol consumption is an important cause,'' said Schäuble. ''Drinking is on the rise.''
Police experts are also worried by the increase of severe assaults, which went up by 1.1 percent. (Further information by DW-world)