REGIONS FOR ECONOMIC CHANGE

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State Chancellery

• REGIONS FOR ECONOMIC CHANGE
• Regional policy responses to demographic
  challenges
• Disparities within one region
• how the Land Brandenburg manages
• shrinking cities, a booming urban belt and an
  ageing region
• at the same time
• Dr.-Ing. Hans-Ulrich Oel
• Head of Unit for Demographic Change
• State Chancellery Land Brandenburg

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Age pyramid of Schwedt/Oder
State Chancellery
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New distribution of population
State Chancellery
Potsdam
Frankfurt (Oder)
Cottbus
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What is to do?

State Chancellery

• How can we manage the regional challenges?
• What is necessary? What is possible?_______
• First we have to understand, that demographic
  change is a reality
• There is a demand for strategic planning and
  coordination
• Demographic change needs to be top priority
• What is to do?
• 1. Mount a campaign, to have an intensive
  political communication
• 2. Create conditions for an increase in natality
• 3. Configure the process of demographic change
• 4. Readapt infrastructure to the new density and
  structure of population

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Population development

State Chancellery

• Give population development a direction
• What we already initiated
• Give potential parents a reliable perspective
  on a job
• Adequate supply with kindergartens
• Advanced training courses for parents having
  trouble with education
• Local alliances for families (Lokale Bündnisse
  für Familien)
• Entrepreneurial initiative Babies and Bosses
• What we need to do
• Improvement of communication between generations
• Further information to this field of policy
  www.familiennews.brandenburg.de

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To form demographic change

State Chancellery

• Use the potential competence of elderly people
• What we already initiated
• Corporative and social engagement of citizens
• Programme Policy for senior citizens as a guide
  line for ministries
• Policy not for but with senior citizens and NGOs
• Increase the labour-force participation rate of
  elderly people
• What we need to do
• Hand over expert knowledge of elderly people to
  younger people
• Silver Economy (Turn Silver into Gold, Mary
  Furlong)
• Further information to this field of policy
  www.masgf.brandenburg.de

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Responding to the effects I

State Chancellery

• Central place system, modernisation of
  administration, infrastructure
• What we already initiated
• Reduction of the number of local authorities from
  1479 to 421
• Services of public interest with regional
  relevance in 50 medium sized centres
• eGovernment, transition to a more flexible
  administration
• Demography check for investments and
  deconstruction of technical infrastructure
• Reorganisation of social and medical care systems
  and regional public services
• What we need to do
• Concentration on the main tasks
• Further information to this field of policy
  www.mir.brandenburg.de

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Responding to the effects II

State Chancellery

• Redirection of economic policy and innovations
• What we already initiated
• To strengthen the excellence 15 regional
  clusters of business companies
• To strengthen the excellence 16 groups of branch
  competence
• Concept for innovations, promotion of small and
  middle enterprises (SME)
• Use the potential capacity of rural regions
  (health economy, tourism etc.)
• Lifelong learning Providing competences of
  children up to senior university
• What we need to do
• Guarantee sufficient number and highly qualified
  employees
• Further information to this field of policy
  www.wirtschaft.brandenburg.de

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Factors of success

State Chancellery

• Which things we have pegged as success factors of
  Brandenburgs way to
• manage demographic change and its
  effects________________________
• Strategic planning and coordination and top
  priority
• Intensive political communication raises peoples
  awareness
• Thinking in generations instead of legislative
  periods
• Networking of actors regional and sectoral
• To strengthen the excellence boosts
  self-confidence
• What we need to do to have a further factor of
  success
• Creating a mainstream demographic change in all
  policy fields

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Pitfalls

State Chancellery

• Which things we have pegged as pitfalls of
  Brandenburgs way to
• manage demographic change and its
  consecutions____________
• Declining population and phasing out of private
  and public services often leads to a downwards
  spiral in the concerned region
• Deconstruction of high standards breeds
  disenchantment with politics
• Construction and deconstruction at the same time
  breeds dissatisfaction
• Egoism of ministries and fraternity heats up
  the struggle of distribution
• Long time planning is often not understood, as
  the problem seems far away
• The promotion of civic participation seems to
  have been tackled late

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State Chancellery
When it comes to the future, your task is not to
foresee it, but rather to enable it to
happen. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
www.demografie.brandenburg.de