CeBIT Trade Fair Tries to Take Manhattan

German Research Minister Edelgard Buhlmann banged the drum hard for the ailing German IT industry yesterday as the Germany's high-tech trade fair, CeBit, opened in New York for the first time on Wednesday.

"I hope that American firms, but also companies from other countries taking part in this fair invest in Germany," she said.

CeBIT America is the latest international stop for the annual information and technology fair. In the last two years, the fair -- the world's largest -- which is normally based in Hanover, Germany, has been held in Shanghai, Istanbul and Sydney.

In her opening speech Buhlmann said investing in Germany was still a good option, despite the country's current economic malaise.

"Germany is a very attractive place to invest. We have the lowest corporate tax and highly educated and motivated people. We have excellent research facilities and infrastructure. It's simply worth it to invest in our country," she continued.

A slow start stateside

But Buhlmann's rallying cry for investment in the ailing German IT sector may have fallen on deaf ears, as the three-day-long fair on the banks of the Hudson River got off to a slow start.

Although big names like Hewlett Packard, chipmaker Intel, Sony and Microsoft are in attendance at Manhattan's Javit Convention Center, just 400 exhibiters from 15 countries in total are presenting the latest developments in technology and telecommunications. That's a far cry from the 6,526 companies who displayed their wares in Hanover in March this year.

But the organizers, who expect as many as 20,000 to shell out $150 for a ticket by the time the fair ends on Friday, deny the fair's first stateside saunter is a damp squid.

"For a first exhibition (here) and in difficult economic times, to get 400 firms taking part is great start," CeBIT chief Ernst Raue said.

"CeBIT will make a name for itself in America, because the fair is a well-known brand worldwide. In my opinion, America needs a trade fair like CeBIT . . .I don't want to leave the way open for America to swallow up the competition. America is the home of the computer and I want to be along for the ride," he said.

Hopes to boost Germany's ailing IT sector

With the German IT sector in a funk, the hope is the high quality "Made in Germany" tag will be well received on the other side of the Atlantic.

"We have a lot of innovation to offer," Bernhard Rohleder from BITKOM, the sector's largest umbrella organization, said.

"The computer, as well as the fax machine or Phillip Reiss' speech transmission technology were all developed first in Germany," Rohleder said.

With BITKOM warning that a further 10,000 jobs in Germany could go in an industry which already shelved 35,000 positions last year. The prognosis for the IT industry -- suffering since the dotcom bubble burst at the start of the decade -- remains bleak. In 2002, some 2,000 German high-tech firms disappeared from the market. Three-quarters of these, BITKOM says, were wound up as a result of bankruptcy or insolvency. Now the sector is pinning its hopes on CeBIT America, in an attempt to give German technology companies access to the U.S. market.

"We hope to be able to export the German trade fair concept to America and make it easier for German firms to penetrate the U.S. market," Rohleder said.