Urban Development Concept Berlin 2030: Status Report: Conclusions

Berlin’s economic situation has seen positive progress in recent years; yet it continues to struggle in terms of job creation and job security as well as income levels. However, the city enjoys comparative advantages, particularly in its capacity as a location for knowledge and innovation. The following factors deserve particular emphasis.

Strengths

• Berlin-Brandenburg is a renowned hub of knowledge, thanks to its outstanding universities and institutions of science, concentrations of scientific institutions in the inner and outer city, and private research institutions (Ö1); attractive for those beginning careers in the sciences
• competitive industries such as electrical engineering, power generation and distribution, pharmaceuticals, medical technology and automotive manufacturing
• highly favourable location for media companies and for those in the cultural/creative industries
• the capital city factor: a location with a unique density of political and policy-related institutions
• highly effective networking within the surrounding region, especially in terms of science, transport and housing development (Ö2)
• planned large-scale infrastructural investments, including significant functional and creative upgrading of the urban space (Ö3)
• freight transportation hub, aided by the efficient handling of commercial traffic in the capital region as well as the expansion of the European transport network

Weaknesses

• low per-capita income and high unemployment
• comparatively weak representation of companies and industries with high added value (corporate headquarters, financial industry, knowledge-intensive services, high-tech industries)
• net beneficiary in the fiscal equalisation scheme, dependence on other, financially stronger federal states
• economic activity predominantly in the inner city
• individual hubs in the inner and outer city with weak local economies, especially in terms of retailing

Opportunities

• site potential: large amounts of land available for production, especially in the outer city (Ö5), partly with existing safeguard mechanisms creating a downward effect on prices; excellent site potential for services (Ö6)
• "future locations" create impulses for development (established: Buch, Adlershof; in development: Tegel, City West / Campus Charlottenburg) (Ö7). These are complemented by potential-rich locations shaped by science and industry
• development into a "smart city", in which climate protection and economic growth go hand in hand
• cooperation potential in the networking between science and research
• using site potential for start-up centres
• stable economic structure
• stronger impulses from industries such as design, software, advertising, film, music, retail, transport/logistics, hospitality, communications
• Berlin as a location of cosmopolitanism, diversity and history allows for continually rising added value from tourism
• new airport (BER) as a catalyst for its surroundings (Ö8)

Threats

• continual exodus of skilled labour to other locations
• diminishing numbers of those between the ages of 18 and 65, upon whom the development of Berlin depends, exacerbating the shortage of skilled labour