The breakthrough for the electronic patient file, administrative procedures that can also be completed online in the future, and central, publicly accessible databases fed by the anonymous data of citizens: the federal government wants to achieve all of this by 2025, i.e. by the next federal elections.

She promises that in her digital strategy, which she intends to adopt next week at her cabinet meeting at Schloss Meseberg.

In doing so, she agreed on a total of 18 "projects with leverage" that are to be promoted with priority, as stated in the 51-page strategy paper.

Federal Digital Minister Volker Wissing (FDP), who is responsible for the strategy, has wrested clearly formulated goals from his departmental colleagues, against which they must be measured before the end of the legislative period.

Corinna Budras

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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The federal government wants to ensure that the electronic patient file, or ePA for short, will be used by at least 80 percent of those with statutory health insurance by 2025 and that medication prescriptions will be sent electronically instead of on paper.

With the ePA, the Federal Ministry of Health has set itself a goal that it has been working on for years.

In this respect, it is more of an "evergreen" than a "flagship project".

On the other hand, the advantages of digitization are particularly striking in this area: all examination results and medication doses can be stored in the file, so that they can significantly simplify diagnosis and therapy in the event of doctor visits and emergencies.

So far, the project has been delayed primarily by disputes between the Federal Data Protection Commissioner and the health insurance companies.

Resolving this will not be easy.

Secure digital identities

In addition, the state should provide secure digital identities so that citizens can identify themselves for various services such as registering a vehicle.

The Federal Ministry of the Interior is in charge here.

One goal should concern almost all ministries: Wissing wants to get the German administration to make the results of its enormous data collection available to everyone - anonymously and with "observance of a high level of data protection".

This should be of particular use to companies that can experiment with new business ideas.

The data should also help the climate: next year, an online portal, fed from around 300 different data sources, will provide environmental information available throughout Germany.

The central project of Wissing himself is already known: he has already announced that half of the households and companies are to be supplied with fiber optic connections by 2025.

In addition, the FDP politician promises uninterrupted wireless voice and data services for all users by "2026 if possible" - and "area-wide".

In the field of science and research, an agency for leap innovations, called SPRIND for short, should be able to promote "disruptive innovations" even faster and more flexibly.

According to the paper, Germany should be at the forefront of artificial intelligence research by 2025.

Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens), on the other hand, was rather unambitious when it came to digitization: By 2025, his house only wants to be measured by

that the use of digital technologies in agriculture has “increased” and is “making an effective contribution to more efficiency, sustainability and animal welfare.

Federal Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil (SPD) is also more likely to come up with the well-known: he promises “modern regulations” for employee data protection and for mobile work.

In addition, his company supports trade unions and employers in enabling "flexible working time models".

Initial reactions to the strategy are quite benevolent: "It is a long-awaited signal for the economy that the digital strategy is taking up decisive projects with measurable goals for the first time," says Iris Plöger, member of the executive board of the Federation of German Industry (BDI).

However, the amount of the “digital budget” promised in the coalition agreement also remains open in this strategy paper.

That still has to be negotiated between the various ministries and the Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP).

The BDI demands that the traffic light government “urgently disclose” the digital budget and plan for more funds than before.

Meanwhile, criticism came from the Association of German Machine and Plant Manufacturers (VDMA), for which the previously known points still seemed too vague.

These might just be a start.

The aspects must be further deepened and filled with life.

"Above all, it must be a matter of quickly bringing the measures into concrete implementation and securing the respective financing," demanded Claus Oetter, Managing Director of the VDMA Software and Digitization.