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Continuation: The Economy
Small and medium-sized companies are predominant in the business structure. 94 per cent of all companies have less than 200 employees. But Berlin still has an industrial core. The 16 largest companies employ a total of over 40,000 employees. The Senate’s economic policy aims to stabilise the competitiveness of small and medium-sized business by promoting innovation and providing investment capital.
Almost 100,000 people work in the information and communications sector in 7,900 mainly small and medium-sized companies. Experts predict that the number of jobs in the multimedia sector in Berlin, which is currently about 70,000, will double in the coming years. A favourable infrastructure with over 141,000 km of glass fibre cables, a digitised telephone network and important institutions researching into communications and information technology is furthering progress in this sector. The initiative “The Berlin route to the information society” is helping to move the development forward. By the year 2002, a total of 150 million DM are planned to flow to the “Project future”. 60 per cent of this amount comes from business companies. |
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Continuation:
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The
service sector is the driving force for the economic development
of Berlin. From 1989 to 1998 the number of employees in service
companies rose by 47.5 per cent to 464,300, which is 32.9 per
cent of all employed persons. The growth potential has not yet
been fully exploited. The role of Berlin as the capital city and
the seat of the German government and parliament creates additional
spheres of employment in areas such as news and media, hotels
and catering, security and surveillance, consulting and supervision.
Especially the stronger presence in Berlin of business organisations
and associations such as the Association of German Chambers of
Commerce and Industry (DIHT) and the Confederation of Industry
(BDI) leads to an increase in demand. There are above average
prospects for expansion, for example, for international solicitors’
and notarial offices due to the new subsidiaries of foreign industrial
companies, international business organisations and associations.
There are also prospects for management services and for service
providers specialised in vocational education and training. For
the more than 1,300 software companies with a total of about 14,000
employees, the customer potential is mushrooming in the city where
Konrad Zuse built the world’s first computer 60 years ago.