The world’s largest industrial show, Hannover Messe, has opened its doors in its full format after three years of corona restrictions. The fair, which has around 4,000 participants, wants to build on the time before the pandemic and showcase innovations from mechanical and plant engineering, electrical engineering, and climate protection technologies until Friday, April 21st. The exhibition was opened on Sunday evening by Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the President of the partner country Indonesia, Joko Widodo, and representatives from business and politics.
Scholz hopes that the fair will inspire impetus for a competitive industry and a shift towards CO₂ neutrality. However, there has been criticism from business that some EU countries, including Germany, are losing attractiveness as locations due to high energy prices, too much bureaucracy, and long approval processes. Scholz emphasized the importance of being able to do business in a CO₂-neutral manner while enabling good jobs to be created in the country.
The fair has several focal points, such as technologies for the efficient use of energy, dealing with artificial intelligence, and the hydrogen economy. Scholz stressed the need to accelerate the implementation of the energy turnaround, which requires an average of up to five wind turbines and solar systems to be installed every day in Germany.
Furthermore, Global competition has become tougher as the industry faces a shortage of skilled workers, especially in technical professions. This requires more experts from abroad to alleviate the problem. Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger cites the technology agreement with Taiwan as an example of good international cooperation.
Meanwhile, Indonesia, the largest economy in Southeast Asia, is looking for investors for a “green economy”. Widodo announced that the country wants to gradually convert to a “green” energy supply in the coming years. Investors from Germany are invited to help build this “green” economy. However, human rights activists and representatives of Amnesty International demonstrated in front of the congress center in Hanover, criticizing the violation of the rights of residents of raw material extraction areas and mining regions.
