Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany’s current Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Social Democrats’ candidate for chancellor, announced his plans for the future should the Social Democrats win the general election in September. Steinmeier introduced, as the main aspect of this so-called “Germany Plan”, a concept which would generate a job wonder by creating four million new jobs by 2020, thereby leading to full employment in Germany. While political competitors criticized the plan as being unrealistic, economists and representatives of industry and trade welcomed the concept.

Steinmeier expects to generate a job boom by promoting information and communication technology in Germany and thereby placing Germany at eye’s level with the United States in regard to software production. Steinmeier believes that advances in the IT sector should help to create two million jobs in industry. To achieve these goals, Steinmeier proposed the creation of “software schools” which would focus on the education of programmers and software engineers and noted that more women need to be inspired to take on IT jobs.

Steinmeier also announced a plan to promote the foundation of small and medium-sized businesses by introducing special risk-capital pool and research programs. Steinmeier believes that “a new foundation wave in Germany” is possible which he plans to support with a EUR 1.4 billion (approx. USD 1.9 billion) tax credit program. He also expressed the wish that most of the new jobs created in the industry sector be based on “green” technology such as electric cars as well as an „efficiency revolution“ in all industry areas. In the service sector Steinmeier would rely on the health-care industry and announced a one-million-jobs program for health care and medicine technology if elected chancellor.

Steinmeier declared that while he could not promise the creation of four million jobs, he believes his concept is realistic and can be effective in the fight against unemployment. Emanuele Gatti, a board member of Fresenius Medical Care, one of the world’s largest producers of medical equipment, welcomed Steinmeier’s plan, noting that “Germany is an ideal location for medicine technology”. Also the employer-friendly “German Institute of the Economy”, a private economic research organization, complimented Steinmeier’s proposals as ambitious but possible.