Bureaucracy: two further unleashing packages for NRW

The North Rhine-Westphalian state government has adopted the Unleashing Packages VII and VIII to remove bureaucratic hurdles. The aim is to stimulate innovation and investment activity in companies.

This article is part of the special feature on bureaucratic madness in the skilled trades.

The North Rhine-Westphalian trade association recently called on the state government to systematically develop the measures already taken to reduce bureaucracy . "The state must see itself as a driving force for bureaucracy reduction vis-à-vis the federal government and the EU ," explained Andreas Ehlert . "We need a holistic vision of how to reduce bureaucratic costs and barriers to competition for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)," said the president of Handwerk.NRW (the North Rhine-Westphalia trade association). Given the increased national debt due to the coronavirus crisis, this would be a growth and economic stimulus policy at no cost . Now the state government has launched two deregulation packages , numbers seven and eight. Together, they contain 38 new measures for reducing bureaucracy.

"To ensure that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can truly take off after the crisis and achieve sustainable success, we are removing bureaucratic hurdles and strengthening their capacity for innovation and investment with new deregulation packages," says North Rhine-Westphalia's Minister of Economic Affairs, Andreas Pinkwart (FDP). One component of this is the revised SME Promotion Act, which will strengthen the SME Clearing House . In the future, it will be involved not only in new legislation but also in existing clearing procedures. While the skilled trades sector had called for this strengthening, it had hoped for the Clearing House to have the right to initiate its own projects . This wish will remain unfulfilled for now, as it will continue to operate only on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Consistently use digitalization

The skilled trades sector had also called for the "consistent use" of digitalization to relieve the burden on businesses. Hans Hund , President of the West German Association of Chambers of Skilled Crafts , praised the planned digitalization of administrative services within the framework of the launch of the North Rhine-Westphalia Business Service Portal . According to the state government, the deregulation package includes 35 administrative services that can be processed entirely digitally via the portal. Further services are to follow. "By the end of 2022, 350 so-called 'one-for-all' services should be available for nationwide use via the portal," according to the government's plan. North Rhine-Westphalia is thus boldly forging ahead with the digitalization of public administration, said Hund. However, he added that there is still considerable potential to simplify and accelerate approval processes.

He also called for increased digitalization to reduce statistical and documentation requirements . The state government's plan: "To relieve citizens and businesses of unnecessary data collection, the state aims for simple, low-bureaucracy, and digital official statistics and reduces statistical reporting obligations." Furthermore, it intends to simplify networking for startups with a statewide portal ( startups.nrw ) and is also combining the promotional loans for digital and innovative projects (NRW.Bank.Digitalization Loan and NRW.Bank.Innovation Loan). In addition, it is expanding the "SME Innovative & Digital" program with the new "MID-Invest" component. This will promote specific, technology-based hardware and software in medium-sized businesses. The state government plans to allocate €30 million for this purpose by the end of 2022.

You might also be interested in:

Operations management

Product information for customers: Is there a digital way to do this?

Operations management

Plumbing, heating and air conditioning (SHK) industry on the reduction of heating subsidies

Craft policy

Carpentry guilds in North Rhine-Westphalia are awarding journeyman's certificates to women for the first time.

One-in-one-out principle should apply

The state intends to offset any new burden on the economy with relief in another area (one-in-one-out principle). Federal and European Union regulations are to be implemented " as closely as possible " to avoid creating additional bureaucracy . With this one-to-one implementation, the state government aims to put an end to so-called "gold-plating." This means that North Rhine-Westphalia will not add any additional rules when implementing such regulations, in order to prevent overregulation. For its own legislation, the state will always orient itself toward the " simplest and most straightforward solution nationwide." Further measures include the harmonization of public procurement law with identical regulations and thresholds for municipalities and state agencies, as well as the harmonization of funding guidelines in grant law.

DHB is now also available digitally! Simply click here and register for the digital DHB!