Network Blade hinders the economy | fnp.de

A growing number of German companies are complaining of a new study on bad roads, radio books and lame internet connections. A good 68 percent of the 2,600 companies surveyed see their business impacted by a lack of infrastructure, as determined by the Kln Institute for Labor Economics (IW) in a survey . It was ten points higher than five years ago. The biggest problems are caused by roads and communication networks

Miscellaneous Problems

However, the problems are not the same everywhere. The worst roads are in North Rhine-Westphalia, where even 78% of companies complained of poor infrastructure. According to Thomas Puls, one of the authors of the study, the streets of the Ruhr are even worse off than in North Rhine-Westphalia. Mobile and Internet communications are the most frustrating in East Germany: nearly a third of companies as it says in the study. The north with Lower Saxony, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Bremen behaves relatively well, where only a little less than a quarter of companies see a significant impact. "Overall, it's a pretty general problem," said Puls. According to the study, the construction sector and service sector, which depend on good roads, suffer the most.

"Most roads present the same problems at the municipal level," says Heiko Stiepelmann, deputy director of the German Association of the Construction Industry. "In the municipal sector, the backlog of investments has tended to increase in recent years." The Confederation, on the other hand, is making great efforts to modernize national roads and highways. "We have to recognize it, we support it a lot."

However, the billions of euros of long-haul federal government roads even contribute, as the IW study shows, to the wrong rating. "More construction sites mean more traffic jams and operational breakdowns," the paper says. Scientists see the main problem is not the lack of money for the road: the main obstacles are according to the study the lack of qualified personnel in the authorities and the Tcken complicated planning law, the Baumanahmen slowed down

In telecommunications, the Bitkom digital badociation sees the situation but faster expansion of fast Internet connections. "The broadband expansion in Germany is better than its reputation, as Germany has made good progress in recent years," said badociation president Achim Berg. However, according to the boss of Bitkom, the needs of the network are increasing day by day.

"That's why it's important that optical fiber expansion continues to move forward and that business parks take precedence," says the application. The main criticism of Bitkom: "The jungle of bureaucratic regulations and formal approval procedures prevents in many places a rapid expansion of optical fiber."

(dpa)