"Skills training is vital for our economic future"

I am delighted to be opening EMO Hannover today. And I am pleased to see so many happy faces here: our hosts are celebrating an important anniversary - and the very successful evolution of EMO Hannover over the past three decades. Exhibitors and visitors alike can look ahead to the coming days with high expectations. After all, the market for machine tools is flourishing.

Even when it was first staged here in Hannover back in 1977, EMO was the most comprehensive international trade fair for metalworking technologies. Today, as it celebrates its 30^th anniversary, it is one of the biggest trade fairs in the world.

"Made in Germany" is a label that commands a great deal of respect in the international machine tool market. And I am delighted that the excellent reputation enjoyed by German engineering continues to attract manufacturers to Germany from all over the world. They know that they can do good business in our country. Germany is not only the most important manufacturer of machine tools in Europe, but also the largest buyer of machine tools. So the outlook for the future is optimistic. The world market for machine tools is growing - and the domestic economy is on the up. Companies are starting to invest again with confidence. And according to the experts, the prospects for medium-term growth are also looking good. A recent survey indicated that more than three quarters of machine tool manufacturers are planning to expand their production facilities here in Germany. The great efforts made by businesses - both by management and staff - have paid off. The economic policy reforms of the last few years have also made an important difference. But the reform process must not be allowed to falter. I firmly believe that the continuation of these policy reforms would send out a clear message that investing in Germany will continue to pay off, and that this will create much-needed new jobs.

Continuing growth in the future - in your industry as in others - is crucially dependent on an adequate supply of well-trained, creative and hard-working employees. Many companies, it is true, complain that it is difficult to recruit skilled personnel - particularly engineers - and report that many vacancies remain unfilled despite their best efforts. An industry survey carried out by one research institute suggests that Germany needs another 50,000 engineers. The Federal Agency for Labour has likewise identified shortages in some areas. The labour market figures do not yet indicate a general shortage of skilled labour, but it has got much harder to recruit engineers in the mechanical engineering and automotive industries, with vacancies remaining unfilled for much longer than average. On the one hand this is typical of all recovery phases. And there is every reason to rejoice that today's unemployment figures are nearly 670,000 lower than they were a year ago - and 1.1 million lower than two years ago. But if German companies have to turn down orders in the future due to a lack of skilled manpower, and those orders go to foreign firms instead, then clearly the early warning system in our manufacturing sector has failed to function correctly.

I know that mechanical engineering companies in Germany work hard to attract school-leavers and graduates, using a variety of - often very creative - recruitment campaigns. They do it here at EMO as well. But measured against the need, it has to be asked whether business is doing enough. Let me therefore encourage you all to do what you can to overcome a possible shortage of skilled labour. For the demographic trend and the growing demand for qualified personnel mean that this challenge is going to remain with us beyond the present economic cycle. What is needed here is forward thinking.

Businesses in the machine tool industry - and in other sectors too - would therefore serve their own interests by trying to attract trainees at an early stage. Because you can only train someone to be a machine tool technician if they are interested in the first place. And the way to get them interested is to invite them into your factory, to show schoolchildren - and their teachers - exactly what it is that makes a career in engineering so attractive. Many more companies should be doing this. Why not arrange demonstrations of how precision machines are manufactured, and what kind of things can be produced with them? Without the machine tool industry there would be no cars and no aircraft. Why not show your young audience that mechanical and plant engineering can play a big part in protecting the environment? Why not establish a partnership with selected schools in your area? There are some amazing computer games, for example, which teach a knowledge of physics through the medium of an adventure story. Anyone who has come to understand Einstein's theory of relativity - packaged in a suitably exciting form - will surely overcome any inhibitions he or she may have had about embarking on a career in technology.

I believe that there is a double benefit to be gained when companies actively seek to recruit young people. On the one hand they are promoting their own company: and on the other they are getting people interested. And young people learn more effectively when they have developed a genuine interest in a career and have a goal to work towards. The much-lamented lack of young people who are suitable training material is undoubtedly a problem. And here the responsibility must fall first and foremost on the parents and schools. But businesses can do something too - if only out of enlightened self-interest, because the school student they inspire today could turn out to be tomorrow's gifted trainee, or next year's highly specialized engineer.

Nor should learning cease after the initial period of training is completed. Firms that depend on qualified staff should also make continuing training a priority - both the further training of their own staff, and the teaching of skills to new job applicants who don't quite measure up as yet to the required standard. In the light of the current debate I find it incomprehensible that German firms are now back-pedalling on their commitment to further training - according to a study published by the Federal Office of Statistics. The right course of action would be for them to do more, not less - particularly when it comes to older members of the workforce. The quota of older employees participating in further training programs is around 33 per cent in the Scandinavian countries, whereas in Germany it is only ten per cent. And the fact that older engineers in Germany have an above-average chance of being unemployed flies in the face of the much-lamented lack of skilled personnel. Here in Germany we all need to start realizing that the knowledge and experience of our older fellow citizens is a valuable resource for the future.

Investing in basic and further training takes time and money - but there is simply no alternative for businesses that are dependent on qualified staff. And if you need skilled workers, the best way is to train them yourself. The alternative - trying to entice them away from your competitors further down the line - can be very expensive, and you may lose out to a higher bidder anyway. At a time when companies are vying with each other to recruit the best, it is really important to focus on staff retention and to build up the loyalty of your employees.

Women change jobs less often than their male colleagues. Yet even here we find unused potential. Only 11 per cent of the engineers currently in employment are women. A recent study has just examined the opportunities for men and women in the scientific and engineering professions - "to motivate and encourage businesses", as the authors proclaim. The results are somewhat worrying. According to this study, women engineers, IT specialists and chemists achieve less professional success than their male counterparts. They are paid less, given less responsibility, and are less often found in management positions than their male colleagues. This cannot be attributed to poorer academic grades, lack of foreign experience or less on-the-job training - nor is it anything to do with having children. Quite the contrary: compared with their childless colleagues of both sexes, the study found, well-qualified fathers AND mothers both perform more successfully. So if women wish to carry on working, children per se are no bar to career advancement. But we do need to achieve a better work-life balance, both for fathers and for mothers. This requires employers who not only demand flexibility from their employees, but who are also prepared to be flexible themselves when it comes to the organization of work and the structuring of working hours. Many studies have shown that this kind of enlightened personnel policy has a positive impact on the productivity and profitability of businesses.

Harnessing the full potential that our country has to offer also means working to improve the integration of immigrants. We all bear a responsibility for this, and businesses can play an important part here. Work is a decisive factor in integration, because work not only generates an income, it also builds self-confidence and facilitates social contact.

We also need to do something about the fact that young people from a migrant background, with the same educational qualifications, find it much harder to get a training post or apprenticeship.

Even with immigration and the possibility of rising birth rates again, the declining population will have an impact on the labour market. So it is all the more important that we do our utmost to train our existing workforce better, here in Germany with its strong technology-led manufacturing base. Of course this will require government action as well. We need a broader and better education system - starting at the infant stage. If we look at what is happening in other countries, we find that our European neighbours generally do much more than we do to foster the development of pre-school children. This gives children a better start in life and more equal opportunities. We spend less than the international average on primary education. And if we want to compete successfully in the international arena, then we also need more university graduates.

Interest in technical and scientific subjects has definitely declined over the last ten years. It is partly up to you, the producers in the machine tool industry, to see that this changes. Your line of business, after all, has a great deal to offer. The machine tool industry is booming, and is a mainstay of the German economy. It is a genuine high-tech industry. Those who work in this industry are developing and producing cutting-edge technology that is in demand worldwide, and of which our country can be proud. You are accustomed to selling your products all over the world - which means that your employees get to travel a great deal. And that appeals to young people, who are curious about the world and keen to broaden their horizons.

No matter where you are in the world, tools are the foundation of life and civilization. In Goethe's Faust we read: "A man who would work to good effect must see that he has the right tools." May all the visitors to this trade fair find the right tools. I hereby declare EMO Hannover 2007 officially open, and I wish you all every success in the coming days.