minister floats german industry strategy, 'champions' - chinese appliance manufacturers

BERLIN (AP)-
On Tuesday, a senior German official suggested that the government could temporarily take a stake in technology companies to prevent foreign acquisitions.
"In a proposal designed to keep Germany competitive fast --
Economic Minister Peter Altai Maier also supported the idea of "national and European champions.
"Altai Maier has long been a close ally of the center --
Yes, Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Altai Maier said his proposal was
Start discussions in Germany and Europe on industrial strategies to cope with fierce global competition, especially from China, other Asian countries and the United States. S.
German officials and experts fear that, as Europe's largest economy, Germany may lag behind in the development of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and electric vehicles. The most eye-
In Altai Maier's proposal, the striking idea is the concept of an "investment fund", which, as a last resort, can be used to protect companies that develop key technologies from being taken over.
Details have not been resolved.
Altai Maier told reporters that given that the government holds shares in Deutsche Telekom and Deutsche Post and remains the sole owner of German railway operator Deutsche Post, "The country must also have the possibility to participate in high levels in a limited period of time.
Technology companies that are at least as important to our future.
But he also stressed that the stakes "cannot be permanently nationalized because the country is bad at business ".
"His proposal states that the purchase of new shares should be balanced by the government privatizing the shares in other areas.
Altai Maier pointed out that the Chinese home appliance manufacturer Midea bought the German robot manufacturer Kuka in 2016 to show his concern about the acquisition of German technology companies.
Altai Maier's proposal expressed concern that Germany did not create a new company in the world.
Leading in scale in recent years.
If a country lacks a "critical mass necessary" company to compete with international competitors, then, "In fact, this has led to an important and growing part of the world market being shut out.
It noted that the industrial group Siemens, ThyssenKrup, Deutsche Bank and German automakers, as well as Airbus, the European aircraft manufacturer, were examples of the existing "champions" and mentioned that railways were another challenge
Siemens (Siemens) and Alstom (Alstom), France, want to merge their respective railway operations and become European champions with the support of their respective governments, but EU authorities seem to be skeptical about granting antitrust permission
The idea put forward by Altai Maier is that, compared with national or European markets, greater global attention is given to competition law.
In addition, the government has taken action in December to tighten
The EU's investment in the defense and telecoms sectors, as well as in the media, has lowered the threshold for it to consider blocking these plans.
This partly reflects concerns about Chinese investors.
The new proposal by Altai Maier has caused a different response.
Leonard Huben, a relative.
The Liberal Democratic Party of the commercial opposition says it has a slight word about "ordering the economy.