BERLIN, Sept 26 — The head of the organisation that represents German industry has issued an urgent warning about companies relocating abroad because of structural problems in Germany, reported dpa news agency.
"Value creation, operations, and jobs of large parts of the energy-intensive industry at their locations in Germany are in concrete danger," said Federation of German Industries (BDI) president Siegfried Russwurm on Monday at the start of a BDI climate congress in Berlin, according to a speech manuscript distributed in advance.
Industrial production, he said, is disappearing or being relocated abroad. "The lights are literally being switched off at more and more German sites."
Russwurm insisted that industry wants to achieve climate targets, but he warned there was a danger of "going under because we lose competitiveness and lack any reliable basis for planning."
Entrepreneurs, he said "can only do business and invest successfully if the framework conditions are calculable and if the cost position is competitive. Both are less and less the case."
The BDI president spoke of a "wake-up call".
Essential parts of industrial production in Germany were at stake, and without internationally competitive energy costs for companies, this would not end well.
The German government has been debating relief measures in light of internationally high energy prices for weeks. However, the three coalition parties - the centre-left SPD, the Greens, and the liberal FDP - all have different views on the matter.
— Bernama-dpa
