What the German economy has achieved with digitalisation in recent years can not, in my opinion, be dismissed as "zero productivity progress". Many things have been done. For example, the BITKOM, VDMA and ZVEI industry associations founded and expanded the Industry 4.0 platform - one of the largest Industry 4.0 networks worldwide, which cooperates with many different alliances, as well as giving practical start-up help on digitalisation and Industry 4.0 to small and medium-sized companies. According to BITKOM, some 62 percent of companies in Germany have since introduced Industry 4.0 applications. And the platform has also provided stimulus within the international discourse. That is a very important point. A powerful vision like Industry 4.0 needs sufficient time. We should not expect, that all the players are at the same level, and that everything is ready at the same time. And we should not lose patience. Not after just ten years. Think of the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, who had the vision in the 1980s of shifting heavy industry into outer space and transforming the earth into a sort of national park. Only today, some four decades later, are private space flight companies being developed, which could transform the vision into reality. Big dreams can take time. And things are already happening on the journey. We at MULTIVAC started in 2017 to engage intensively with the subject of the Industrial Internet of Things. Since then we and our technology suppliers have made rapid progress. The infrastructure and the networking of machines are striking examples. Even Chinese experts recognise this and have recently come onto our exhibition stands asking about Industry 4.0. That is a good sign. Big things are due to happen for us.

I see digitalisation as a powerful instrument for promoting trade and industry. Particularly in the machine engineering industry, one of the foundations of the German economy, it is the digital transformation, which offers companies the opportunity to reposition themselves and develop new markets. One example of this is service. Here the business models will change in the next ten years - driven by Industry 4.0 technology. Away from the classic spare parts business towards proactive and customer-focused service. Thanks to digitalisation, networking and key technology such as Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, it is possible for operators to analyse the live operation of machines and lines, as well as optimising the throughput, eliminating faults more quickly, and therefore increasing the machine availability. Services, which mean hard cash for customers and are consequently very attractive. But it is not only about promoting economic efficiency. In my opinion, digitalisation is also an aid to sustainability. Thanks to networking for example, machines and lines can provide live consumption figures for power, compressed air and coolant, and these key performance indicators support companies in making their processes more transparent and recognizing potential for savings.