Joe Kaeser, the former chief executive officer of Siemens, now chair of Siemens Energy and Daimler Truck, considers private wealth buildup through pension investments as one of the five main blocks of a comprehensive plan he dubbed “Agenda 2030” to pull Germany out of an economic, industrial and now political crisis.
Kaeser, an outspoken industry leader who lived firsthand the reign of former chancellor Angela Merkel and met with heads of states internationally in his role as Siemens CEO, has suggested that pensions should be considered as a means to build private wealth for future generations.
“Pensions must be financed upwards through private wealth accumulation among young people, by investing contributions in the private sector, and generate a completely different return than has been the case so far,” he said in an interview with public broadcaster ARD.
Germany has a problem if 25% of its federal budget is spent on pension subsidies, he added during the interview.
Kaeser made it clear that relieving the public budget from contributions for pensions does not mean cutting what people receive from retirement savings at the end of their working life.
A dispute with the country’s liberal party on the formula for calculating the level of pension was one of the reasons that led to the collapse of the traffic-light coalition of social democrats (SPD), Greens and FDP, chancellor Olaf Scholz said in an interview just days after sacking finance minister Christian Lindner. The FDP denied that a dispute on pension policies triggered a political crisis.
However, in his programme for a new era of economic growth in Germany, called Wirtschaftswende Deutschland, that escalated the political crisis, former finance minister Christian Lindner proposed to cut burdens for the public budget through a pensions reform, and contain an increase in contribution rates.
Kaeser’s Agenda 2030, which resembles a series of reforms put forward through the Agenda 2010 by former social democratic chancellor Gerhard Schröder, resonates with the public and among political representatives as Germany is preparing for elections in February.
“We need an Agenda 2030 that includes at least five large blocks,” Kaeser said in the interview.
The five main blocks of the agenda to revitalise the country’s economy and industry include education, innovation and research, infrastructure and energy, economy, pensions and social issues, and administration, he said.
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