How competitive will Germany be in the future? The consulting firm Deloitte attempts to answer this question with a study and comes to mixed results.
The study authors examined 25 individual factors from the three areas of talent, startup culture, and investment. The individual results of all 35 OECD member countries were then compared to each other: Each country can be ranked among the leaders, the trailing pack, the laggards, or the underdogs for each of the indicators.
Mixed results for talent
Even within the categories, the results are very mixed. On the one hand, Germany ranks second in the talent pipeline subcategory, i.e., the future skilled workforce. This is explained by the high quality of university education and the large proportion of students in mathematics, science, engineering, and computer science. Seven of the 100 best technical universities are located in Germany: Munich, Aachen, Karlsruhe, Freiburg, Stuttgart, Dresden, and Darmstadt.
However, there is a clear shortage of available IT experts: their share of all employees is 0.7 percent. This ranks Germany 20th among all participating countries. Germany performs even worse in research in the ICT sector, ranking 22nd. Germany can at least partially compensate for the shortage of its own IT experts through its high attractiveness to foreign specialists.
Germany fails in startups & investments
The study authors' assessment of Germany in the startup category is surprisingly negative: Only in the "status of successful entrepreneurs" indicator does they place Germany among the top group. In all other aspects, they see Germany among the laggards or lagging behind.
The results for investments are also mixed: Germany lags behind in terms of the share of ICT investments and is a laggard or follower in terms of R&D and value added in the ICT sector.
Dr. Alexander Börsch, Chief Economist at Deloitte, summarizes the results:
"Talent resources, affinity for entrepreneurial activity, or investment: Among the 34 OECD countries included in the study, Germany positions itself very differently in the relevant categories – with strengths, but also with significant weaknesses. The challenges are correspondingly great."
