New data base on business development online 14. December 2006 by Thomas Jannot Last Tuesday the Federal Ministry for Economy and Technology (BMWi) went online with the new Federal support data base. In constrast to prior versions, this time it features comprehensive search possibilites, contents and an appealing design. Visitors are provided with detailed information on more than 1000 support programmes made available by the government, federal states …
New statistical data on Iran available 14. December 2006 by Thomas Jannot With a population of 67.5 million people Iran is an interesting market for small and medium-sized entities in spite of the political problems. For this reason it may be worth having a look at the new „country profile of Iran” published by the Federal Statistical Office.
Benefit from key interest rate changes by comparing bank interest rates 13. December 2006 by Thomas Jannot In the wake of the increase in key interest rates to 3.5 % by the European Central Bank on the 7th of December, the interest rates offered by commercial bankes will be accordingly adapted. Whereas it is true that debit interest rates go up immediately after an increase in key interest rates, this is not …
Companies without their own website may soon advertise through AdWords 12. December 2006 by Thomas Jannot So far anybody wanting to advertise through Adwords on the popular Google internet research engine, had to establish their own website, something which could turn out to be quite problematic to very small companies. For this reason Google offers a mini solution of restricted scope for these companies which is for the time being available …
Language barriers not as high as expected 12. December 2006 by Thomas Jannot Although there is an extreme lack of experts, particularly in small and medium-sized hightech entities in Germany, the possibilities of recruiting such people from neighbouring countries are not sufficiently made use of. The main reason for this is the fear of language barriers. This fact was revealed by the “Managing Mobility Matters 2006« study conducted …
Dramatic lack of experts in telecommunications 11. December 2006 by Thomas Jannot A recent industry barometer by the Federal Association for Information Management, Telecommunications and New Media, the so-called BITKOM index, not only measured expectations regarding turnover, but also trends concerning the labour market. According to the BITKOM president, Mr. Willi Berchtold, at the end of 2006 the labour market presents quite a heterogenious picture for the …
Ideas for use of Galileo wellcome 11. December 2006 by Thomas Jannot Through a “Green Book on the use of satellite navigation” for the Galileo satellite system the European Commission also addresses hightech small and medium-sized entities and think tanks. According to its preamble the purpose of this Green Book is to open a discussion which is to spur the development of new applications in satellite navigation.
Germany in second place as regards inventions 10. December 2006 by Thomas Jannot Germany comes second worldwide with regard to inventions, but ranks only in midfield as far as innovations are concerned. In future so-called clusters between newly- founded companies and market-oriented scientists may help to turn inventions more frequently into innovations which can be commercialized. A decisive disadvantage regarding the commercialization of innovations in Germany is a …
Germany lacks 22.000 engineers 10. December 2006 by Thomas Jannot There are alarming figures for small and medium-sized hightech entities which play a particular important role in the German economy: Prof. Eike Lehmann, chairman of the association of german engineers (VDI), in his recent presentation of current figures concerning the labour market for engineers laments a substantial shortage of engineers. According to these figures, about …
More money for research and development 7. December 2006 by Thomas Jannot In 2006 the German government has increased the amount of money spent on research and development (R&D) by almost 7%. This is the conclusion of the 2006 Federal Report on Research prepared by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) which was approved yesterday by the federal cabinet.