Finally shaking hands again, finally toasting again: For the first time since 2020, the New Year's reception of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce took place on Thursday evening.

"Our region thrives on exchange and communication," said IHK President Ulrich Caspar to the around 1,200 guests in the stock exchange, including numerous representatives from politics, business, culture and society. 

Daniel Schleidt

Coordinator of the economics department in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

  • Follow I follow

Caspar said that crises could be the norm in the future.

"So we have to ask ourselves how we deal with it." It is therefore important to give companies as much freedom as possible in order to be able to react better to crises.

However, there is often a lack of openness to technology.

Caspar criticized that the economy was prevented in many areas from developing towards climate neutrality.

For example, it was not a good decision by city politicians to restrict the construction of data centers in Frankfurt.

The transformation towards CO2-freedom requires digitization, for which data centers stand.

"So why is the economy hindered?" asked Caspar.

Increasingly strict specifications for construction would also stand in the way of energetically sensible investments, said Caspar;

In addition, the housing market is too heavily regulated, which stands in the way of extensions and increases.

“The Frankfurt economy came through Corona well”

With a view to the Corona crisis, Caspar said that many sectors and companies had been hit, but overall the region's economy had come through the crisis well.

It is reassuring to see that when people are faced with difficult tasks, they are also able to solve them.

Innovation and progress brought better living conditions to the following generations.

Mayor Nargess Eskandari-Grünberg (Greens) also recalled the difficult times for the economy and society.

The industry has shown that in times of crisis it is ready to take on new tasks and find new solutions.

The city now needs optimism to look to the future.

She learned at the World Economic Forum in Davos that many people are curious about Frankfurt. "That is important in order to further strengthen our economy." Frankfurt offers optimal conditions for a strong economy.

The hallmark of the city is its internationality.

“Frankfurt is strangling itself with outdated structures”

The Chairman of the Board of the Frankfurt Polytechnic Society, Frank Dievernich, spoke out in favor of breaking down structures in order to make the future entrepreneurially successful again.

Frankfurt and the whole country are “strangling” themselves with structures that “were good and right at one time”, for example with specifications as to where in the city building is allowed, but are no longer the right ones.

Regulations that were once orderly are now impeding the city's growth.

Many organizations are now set up in such a way that they tend to preserve what already exists instead of allowing for something new.

You have to give the citizens responsibility and let them do their thing, not bypassing the state, but in addition to the state and sometimes sluggish structures.

Politicians must create framework conditions so that citizens and the economy can develop.

"We need space for the decentralized intelligence of the citizens," said Dievernich.

Frankfurt needs a non-partisan alliance between its civil society, the parties and the administration.

"This is the only way to create a new cohesion, a 'we' that makes it possible to tackle the great challenges of our time." Politicians and business leaders should tear down structures and not act alone in the future, but act in a network.

It takes a very specific spirit of departure.

"The formula for the future of this city is very simple: Let's be more unity." He doesn't mean the football club.

It is about each individual standing behind their own interests, but rather understanding them as a team that together is better than the sum of its individual parts.