Bitkom calls for digital pact: billions in investment for digital sovereignty

The digital association Bitkom has proposed a digital pact for Germany, with which the federal government is to invest a total of 100 billion euros in the digital sovereignty of the Federal Republic. The money is to come from the special fund adopted by the Bundestag to promote German infrastructure. According to Bitkom President Ralf Wintergerst, the digitalization of companies, infrastructures, and administrations has an impact on international market success and technological independence.

30 billion euros for cloud, chips, and AI

Specifically, the industry association is calling for investment in four areas in its digital pact. Half of the budget is to be allocated to the development of a so-called German stack. Ten billion euros each are to flow into artificial intelligence, sovereign cloud infrastructures and the semiconductor industry. Germany is already strong in the manufacture of machines for chip production. The association sees a need for a further nine billion euros in the construction of German quantum data centers. The association could also imagine funding for IT security and cryptography from this pot.

Bitkom's proposal envisages a budget of 35 billion euros for the digitalization of the economy. Of this, 20 billion euros is to be allocated to special depreciation allowances of 175 percent for digital goods. Five billion euros are also planned for digital hospitals and 1.5 billion euros for a digital transport infrastructure. The industry association would also like to see digital vouchers for small and medium-sized enterprises with a total value of 500 million euros.

Government cloud for six billion euros desired

In its proposals, Bitkom also suggests that the next German government should spend ten billion euros on digitizing the administration. At six billion euros, a large part of this could go towards setting up a joint cloud infrastructure for the federal, state and local governments. 2.2 billion could be invested in modernizing registers and linking them across all federal levels. Bitkom proposes five billion euros for digital education, including 2.3 billion euros for the digital qualification of teachers and one billion euros for daycare centers and universities.

Other representatives of the IT and digital economy have also recently commented on the planned special fund. The German AI Association, the Association of the Internet Industry eco and the telecommunications association Breko spoke out in favor of unbureaucratic and simple approval procedures. If the KI-Bundesverband and eco have their way, a newly created digital ministry would manage the funding and make targeted investments in projects and companies. The special infrastructure fund has yet to be approved. The Federal Council intends to decide on this next Friday.

(sfe)