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 topic Bureaucratic madness in the craft industry

The North Rhine-Westphalian craft sector recently called on the state government to implement the measures taken systematically develop measures to reduce bureaucracy"The country must present itself to the federal government and the EU as Engine of bureaucracy avoidance understand," explained Andreas Ehlert"We need a holistic vision of how we can reduce bureaucratic costs and barriers to competition for small and medium-sized enterprises," said the President of Crafts.NRWGiven the increase in national debt due to the Corona crisis, this would be a growth and Economic policy at no costNow the state government has two unleashing packages launched, numbers seven and eight. Together, they contain 38 new measures to reduce bureaucracy.

"With it especially small and medium-sized enterprises To ensure that companies can really get off to a good start after the crisis and be sustainably successful, we are removing bureaucratic hurdles with new unleashing packages and strengthening their capacity for innovation and investment," says NRW Economics Minister Andrew Pinkwart (FDP). One building block is to amended SME Promotion Act with a strengthening of the Clearing House for SMEs In the future, it will be applied not only to new but also to existing laws and clearing procedures. The trade had called for a strengthening of the Right of initiative The clearing house had hoped for this. This wish remains unfulfilled for the time being, as it will continue to operate solely on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Consistently use digitalization

The trade had also demanded that Digitalization "to use consistently" to relieve the burden on companies. Hans Hund, President of the West German Chamber of Crafts, praised the planned digitization of administrative services as part of the launch Business Service Portal.NRWAccording to the state government, part of the deregulation packages are 35 Administrative services, which are made via the portal completely digital can be processed. More services are to follow. "By the end of 2022, 350 so-called one-for-all services should be available nationwide for shared use on the portal," according to the government's plan. North Rhine-Westphalia is thus making bold progress in the digitalization of administration, Hund said. But: There are still a lot of potentialto simplify and accelerate approval procedures.

He also called for more digitalization to Statistical and documentation obligations The state government's plan: "In order to relieve citizens and businesses of unnecessary surveys, the state aims to create simple, low-bureaucracy and digital official statistics and reduce statistical obligations." It also wants Initiating contact with start-ups with a nationwide portal (startups.nrw) and is also merging the subsidized loans for digital and innovative projects (NRW.Bank.Digitalization Loan and NRW.Bank.Innovation Loan). Furthermore, it is expanding the "Mittelstand Innovativ & Digital" program with the new "MID-Invest" module. This is intended to promote specific, technology-based hardware and software in medium-sized enterprises. The state government intends to implement this by the end of 2022. EUR 30 million provide.

One-in-one-out principle should apply

The country intends to relieve the economy for each new burden elsewhere (one-in, one-out principle). Federal and European Union guidelines are to be "as close as possible" be implemented so that no additional bureaucracy With this one-to-one implementation, the state government wants to put an end to the so-called "gold plating." This means that when implementing such requirements, NRW does not want to add any additional rules in order to avoid overregulation. When it comes to its own laws, the state wants to follow the "Germany's easiest and most uncomplicated" solution. Further measures include the harmonization of procurement law with the same regulations and value limits for municipalities and state agencies and the funding guidelines in grant law.

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