A cura di @Carlon Banks.

Un articolo di Reuters parla delle dichiarazioni del ministro dell’Economia Peter Altmaier sulla possibilità di un ingresso dello stato tedesco nel capitale di aziende strategiche a rischio takeover straniero. In particolare il governo tedesco è preoccupato per l’aggressività dei colossi cinesi, che sotto la spinta del stato cinese  con il piano strategico “Made in China 2025”, puntano a diventare  leader mondiali nei settori ad alta tecnologia:

“It can go as far as the state taking temporary stakes in companies – not to nationalise them and run them in the long run but to prevent key technologies being sold off and leaving the country,” he told a news conference.[…] Altmaier identified Germany’s key industrial sectors as: steel and aluminium, chemicals, machine and plant engineering, optics, autos medical equipment, Green technologies, defence, aerospace and 3D-printing. [..] China’s transformation from customer to competitor, combined with the rapid development of new technologies like artificial intelligence has prompted Germany to defend its industry.

Sempre per Altmaier, in Europa c’è bisogno di maggiori fusioni tra le aziende europee per la creazione di colossi in grado di competere con i concorrenti asiatici ed americani. Dure le critiche da parte di Verdi e FDP che vedono in queste dichiarazioni, se attuate, un rischio per il libero mercato e la concorrenza. Da Handelsblatt:

Altmaier reiterated the need to pave the way for large, world-class “European champions.” He expressed concern that few such powerhouses have emerged in Germany in recent years, while in America and China, numerous global giants have emerged in the last two decades, particularly in telecommunications and digital technology. […] Germany’s opposition parties slammed the Altmaier initiative, branding them counter to free-market principles. Katharina Dröge, a competition policy spokeswoman for the Green Party in the Bundestag, told Handelsblatt that the proposals to relax antitrust laws would give “a free ride for mega-mergers and corporate giants.” This not only hurt fair competition and innovation, it also damaged the companies concerned in the long term”, she said.