"Year of innovation": Enterprise reality versus wishful political thinking

In spite of unfavourable general conditions, the innovation activities of Saxon industrial firms was maintained last year at a still relatively high level. This is the result of a study conducted by the Ifo Institute and its Dresden subsidiary based on the Ifo Innovation Survey. The results of the Ifo Innovation Survey show a slight rise in 2003 in the number of innovative enterprises for the first time since 2001 in German manufacturing. The regional differentiation of the shares of innovative firms shows, however, that this increase is attributable only to manufacturing in western Germany, which increased its innovation rate by more than 3 percentage points in comparison to 2002. While eastern German industry in 2003 only registered a slight decline in innovative firms of 1.6 percentage points in comparison to the previous year, the innovation rate of industry in Saxony fell by 2.3 percentage points but was still above the eastern German average. For many enterprises the poor business outlook and profit and financing problems are preventing a further exploitation of available innovation potential.