BERLIN, April 5 (UPI) -- The German government has unveiled a $7.3 billion program to support science and research in an attempt to spark innovation and growth in Europe's largest economy. The program also lends substantial money for the research of new security technologies.
"This is a starting signal into the future and should give enormous momentum for the science and innovation location Germany," Germany's Education and Science Minister Annette Schavan, of the conservative Christian Democrat Union, said Wednesday in Berlin. "Promoting innovation -- in the short or the long run -- will have positive effects on economic growth and the job market."
Germany's economy still has not recovered from years of slow to near-zero growth, and unemployment stands at 12 percent, or just under 5 million.
Schavan admitted Germany's innovation potential -- once the leading science center in the world -- has slowed down significantly.
Critics say the country's high non-wage labor costs and an even higher level of bureaucracy prevents up-and-coming companies from choosing Germany as their base.
"In Southeast Asia, there is a stronger and bigger dynamic going on than in Germany right now," Schavan said. "But this is a signal, also to the state governments and the industry, to do their part and increase investments as well."
For every euro spent, Schavan hopes to get two euros from the industry in additional investments.
Amid several projects to elevate Germany's scientific and innovative potential, the new program will also include additional means for an entirely new sector -- security technology.
"Security is a global market for the future," Schavan's report on the new program says, and Germany wants to play a leading role in researching new technologies, to "identify threats as early as possible."
Germany wants to develop a digital passport for electronic identification; money will also be funneled into the development of unmanned reconnaissance drones, a bid to "secure security of our soldiers and to protect us against terrorist attacks."
Security of Germany's computers is also part of the program, which sponsors the fight against Trojan horses and other viruses, and the development of secure mobile communications technologies.
The center-right/center-left grand coalition government of conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to meet the target set by the European Union, which wants three percent of a country's gross domestic product to be spent on innovation and research, a goal "important for Germany and for Europe," Schavan said.
The biggest chunk of the program's money will be spent to support innovative IT-, nano- and biotechnologies, and the aerospace industry, Schavan said.
Ahead of a large health care sector reform, the program will also lend money to develop improved medication and better treatment methods. Germany is number two in the world (behind the United States) when it comes to exporting medical technologies.
On the heels of the country's first energy summit, money is also going to the development of alternative energy resources. Berlin and industry want to build at least one emission-free clean-coal demonstration plant. The report said Germany needs to keep its edge in renewable energy sources and aims to develop market-ready hydrogen- and fuel cell technologies.
Schavan said the program will also funnel money into the education of young scientists working with the safety of nuclear energy -- a startling plan given the fact that Germany has decided to shut down all the country's atomic energy plants within the next 15 years. So why support young nuclear scientists if Germany plans a future without such energy?
"Independent of the decision whether to phase out nuclear energy, we can't afford to lose our know-how in that sector," Schavan said. "We can't just walk away from a technology that is playing such a big role -- not domestically, but internationally."
The Christian Democrats -- the party of Merkel and Schavan -- would like to keep nuclear energy in the mix, arguing it is a clean and cheap way to reduce the country's dependence on energy imports. The Social Democrats, however, say the country should abide by the coalition agreement, focus on renewable energies and phase out atomic energy.
Schavan's comments solidify what observers in Berlin have been saying since Monday's energy summit: the last word in the struggle over nuclear energy has yet to be spoken.
