Climate change, the energy transition - many industries around the world are in a state of great upheaval.

In such phases, high investments are often made in new technologies.

So far, Germany has been very popular with foreign donors.

But now, of all times, the location has made some past mistakes and omissions noticeable, which significantly reduce its attractiveness abroad.

Sven Astheimer

Editor responsible for corporate reporting.

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Investors complain about four things in particular: backlogs in digitization, rising costs, deficiencies in the logistical infrastructure and stagnating productivity.

Above all, stable framework conditions and the availability of skilled workers are assessed as positive.

These are the main statements of a current survey by the auditing company KPMG, which the FAZ has received in advance.

To this end, around 360 CFOs from international corporations were surveyed.

Participants come from major investment countries, including the US, China, Japan and the largest European economies.

The survey is carried out at regular intervals.

According to the survey, only one in five companies is currently planning an investment of at least 10 million euros in Germany over the next five years.

Four years ago, every third company answered this question in the affirmative.

"German politics not sufficiently agile"

Andreas Glunz, the KPMG management member responsible for the survey, clearly sees the ball in the field of political actors in view of the rapid economic change.

"In the opinion of international investors, German politicians have so far not met the exogenous pressure to change with enough agility," he summarizes the results.

The chief financial officers see the inadequate digital infrastructure in this country as the greatest obstacle to investment.

Only every seventh respondent gave it a progressive and convincing quality.

One in ten, on the other hand, even described them as the bottom of the European Union (EU).

And a quarter of respondents ranked them within the worst five in the EU.

The results fit into the overall picture from a number of other surveys from the past.

Biggest stumbling block: slow digitization

Just recently, the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany published a survey among its members, according to which the digital infrastructure in the public service is a major stumbling block.

The parties to a possible traffic light coalition, especially the FDP, have made the faster expansion of digitization a priority.

In addition, according to the KPMG survey, foreign investors complain above all about the high costs in Germany, for example for electricity.

Energy-intensive industries in particular complain that Germany, at 18.18 cents per kilowatt-hour, is already at the bottom of the list among all 27 EU countries when it comes to the actual industrial electricity costs.

The German tax system also fails among the chief financial officers: for a quarter of those surveyed, it is one of the most unattractive within the EU.

Labor costs well above EU average

The comparatively high labor costs can also influence investors' decisions.

At 36.60 euros on average, they are well above the 28.50 euros on the European average.

This is not a surprising finding for a high-wage country like Germany.

Investors, on the other hand, add up the high labor productivity, which is among the top 5 in the EU for 61 percent and is even top for every tenth respondent.

However, those involved perceive a stagnation in labor productivity in recent years.

This is "in stark contrast to the development in other industrialized countries", commented KPMG manager Glunz on the development.

For example, there are currently conflicts with the works council at VW's main plant in Wolfsburg because CEO Herbert Diess is calling for productivity to be increased with a view to new competitors such as Tesla in Brandenburg.

Last but not least, the success of the Mainz vaccine developer BioNTech has brought research and development in Germany into the international limelight.

Every second respondent sees Germany in the top group of the EU in this category, 6 percent at the top.