Saxony - A True Global (Emerging) Attractor

Saxony establishes itself as an immigration country - best saldo since 1995

Saxon State Minister for Economic Affairs, Labour and Traffic, Sven Morlok, presented on 2013-04-25 during a press talk at GLOBALFOUNDRIES Fab 1 the most recent developments of the immigration status (from inner Germany, and abroad) towards Saxony. The meeting also took the chance to gratulate Mr. and Mrs. Trepte a couple with Saxon origins that relocated to Saxony, after working three years in Schleswig-Holstein and in 2012 both relocating to Saxony, and working at GLOBALFOUNDRIES Fab 1 now.

The positive overall message that emerged from this morning on the edge of Dresden is that Saxony attracted more people in 2012 (triple the number of 2011) to move into Saxony than Saxons moving out of the state. This is especially valuable in times of the developments of overall workforce (in the tradional sense employment) due to aging demographics.

As the presented data (presentation, in German) showed the strongest inflow of people into Saxony had been from outside German. This indicates the rising awareness of the attractiveness of the region in the world on the one hand, especially in the hightech arena. On the other hand other economic dynamics in the Southern parts of the European Community, and Eastern Europe fall into place.

The cities Dresden, Leipzig, and Chemnitz which have drawn in the most incoming people, and their saldo is mostly positive, are thriving economically. Quite different is the situation on the edges of the Free State of Saxony such as the Ore Mountains, or the Lausitz region that still face a braindrain even though their industries are at high levels of quality.

Several questions by other press members in the round at the end of the presentation made clear that a deeper distinction of the returning people (presently a large number of incoming people is due to students starting their studies at of Saxony's universities), and the intentions of them may lead to further insights on acting towards future labour incentives in Saxony.

Concerning the question on the overall impact of the significantly lower transfer payments by European Community, and the finish of the Solidarpakt II in 2019 State Minister Sven Morlok drew attention to the newest report by ifo Dresden from 2012. He also mentioned that the impact on BIP (Brutto Inland Product) due to this development will be between -0.5% and -1% for Saxony (as stated by a recent research study by ifo-Institute Dresden, ifo Dresden berichtet, from page 21 on, in German)

This drew out another question on whether a specified model of an X PRIZE for job creation as proposed by  Peter Diamandis in the Huffington Post could be put to action in Saxony to not only create jobs, but also draw interest towards Saxony on global scale. At the same time enabling local companies, and uprising startups to generate future economic, wealth, social, eduction, and business innovations that once were famous for Saxony.

Saxony clearly has advantages in comparison to other regions in Germany, even though being on the edge, and only more recently capturing rising global interest. GLOBALFOUNDRIES and other internationally active, and connected players give a more than positive sign on which to build on in the coming future.

May the region further strive, and take the chance of diminishing public funding streaming into Saxony as the driver for lasting economic wealth creation across all disciplines, and levels of business.

Ralf Lippold