Germany could lose its position as a world leader in advanced technology because of cheap competition from other countries and excessive bureaucracy and high costs at home, Economics Minister Guenter Rexrodt said on Monday: reporting from Bonn, Reuter says he warned that Germany’s loss of competitiveness was already alarming in microelectronics, genetic engineering and nuclear reactor technology, and that to reverse the decline, the country needed to encourage a more positive public attitude to technology and innovation, improve incentives for investment, and end restrictive working practices which often meant key researchers were prevented from working at night or at weekends – which seems to suggest that the German government is regretting having signed up to the Maastricht Treaty’s Social Chapter.
