N°2 > German industry in the CEECs
Integration based on proximity, inter-dependence and solidarity
Most developed countries have been gradually reducing their level of industrialization since the 1960s, but Germany is an exception. Since the mid-1990s, the country has succeeded in curbing this structural progression, even turning round the trend from the 2000s, particularly in terms of added value.
Germany is currently the second exporter in the world after China. Its performance can be explained by the industrial strategy put in place after the demise of the Berlin Wall: to reorganize the national production system on a regional basis, sharing some of the added value with central and eastern European countries.
As part of its thought process on the future of the Euro-Mediterranean, Ipemed has chosen to analyze the model of regional industrial integration invented by Germany, founded on geographical proximity and inter-dependence between the economies concerned – i.e. on their development gaps. Could the European countries that form the Latin arch and their south Mediterranean neighbours use the German experience as a model with a view to Euro-Mediterranean industrial integration?
The authors
Maxime Weigert, Research Officer at Ipemed, PhD student in tourism geography (Paris 1 University) Hassan Benabderrazik, Economist, former secretary general at the Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture
Contents
- Germany's industrial strategy
- A Model of regional cooperation ?
- An industrial integration of Euromed ?