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Berlin (dpa) - In the fight against the consequences of the corona pandemic, the economy and trade unions in Germany have called for a rapid education offensive.

In the medium term, the central associations of industry and the trade unions also see massive investments as necessary in order to tackle the weaknesses in the infrastructure that came to light above all in the pandemic.

"We need an education and training offensive," said the chairman of the German trade union federation, Reiner Hoffmann, on Thursday of the German press agency after a video conference with Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), several federal ministers and the top representatives of the economy.

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Employer President Rainer Dulger said: "In school education we have a generation that has in fact lost a year of educational opportunities."

In particular, children from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds could be marked by it for years into their working life.

He also called an "education offensive" a priority.

According to government spokesman Steffen Seibert, possible improvements to the training situation were discussed.

A meeting of the federal government, the federal states, the business associations and the trade unions in the “Alliance for Education and Training” should take place next Wednesday.

Hoffmann said: "The alliance for education and training must bring concrete results for the young people in crisis."

In the longer term, politics and social partners want to set the course for more digitization and a change in city centers, as Seibert announced.

Hoffmann said: "We have to look at the time after the pandemic now."

The dreaded dying of shops threatens to desolate the inner cities.

According to dpa information, it was said in the internal round that 25 to 30 percent of the shops in the cities could close.

Hoffmann said: "Without affordable housing and a forward-looking infrastructure policy, we will not be able to maintain inner cities that are worth living in."

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The DGB boss also emphasized: "The crisis shows every day as if through a magnifying glass what is wrong in schools and in public administration."

An investment boost for digitization is urgently needed here.

"But public transport also needs more financial support, because strengthening it is essential for the goal of decarbonization."

The President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Siegfried Russwurm, said: "In the long term, we consider a ten-year investment offensive in the public and private sectors to be necessary to modernize Germany."

Employer President Rainer Dulger, on the other hand, called for "an honest debate about necessary reforms in the social systems".

These would have cushioned many of the consequences of the crisis during the pandemic.

"But the coffers are empty and the social systems were already under pressure from demographic change before the crisis."

The BDI called for rapid, “targeted growth impulses” - for example in the case of special depreciation for investments in digitization, tax research funding, loss offset and the effective burden on companies.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210311-99-782136 / 4