Smart Living Economic Initiative in dialogue with the political world

There were in-depth conversations and discussions with the six Bundestag committees and Ingeborg Esser, Director of the Economic Initiative’s Strategy Circle and Managing Director of the Bundesverbands deutscher Wohnungs- und Immobilienunternehmen e.V. (GdW) [Federal Association of German Housing and Real Estate Enterprise Registered Associations] along with Johannes Hauck (Deputy Director of the Steering Committee of the Smart Living Economic Initiative and Director of New Business & Regulatory Environment of the Hager Group).

At the podium, the Bundestags committees were represented by:

• Daniela Wagner  (Alliance 90/The Greens), member of the Committee on Building, Housing, Urban Development and Local Government and spokeswoman for Urban Development for Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary group
• Daniela Kluckert (FDP), Deputy Chairwoman of the Committee on Transport and Digital Infrastructure
• Sandra Weeser (FDP), Chairwoman of the FDP parliamentary group in the Committee on Economic Affairs and Energy
• Erwin Rüddel (CDU/CSU), Chairman of the Committee on Health
• Hansjörg Durz (CDU/CSU), Deputy Chairman of the Digital Agenda Committee
• Dr. Ernst Dieter Rossmann (SPD), Chairman of the Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment

The need for improved conditions for the middle class, meaningful standardization, a reliable safety concept, and a structure of highly-educated craftsmen were the main topics at the podium. There was also an appeal to install fast internet, not just up to the doorstep but also inside homes as quickly as possible without forgetting rural areas in the process. Broadband deployment in Germany is still too slow to compete on a global scale. Fast internet notably promotes the use of Smart Livings as well.
Skepticism about technology would also need to be reduced, particularly when it comes to progressive artificial intelligence (AI). The world will automatically develop toward smart living, and large-scale data collection is fully underway. As such, Germany must play a leading role in the AI field, and policy must actively help people implement the new technologies as well. The exciting podium discussions showed that there are many influencing factors that must be used for meaningful smart living. Representatives of the Bundestag committees and the representatives of the Economic Initiative provided valuable momentum to that end.

The subsequent "get-together" provided the opportunity to have discussions on smart living viewpoints among the participants.

"The Smart Living Economic Initiative is an excellent, interdisciplinary, cross-industry dialogue platform that we wish to fully support with all our expertise", says Wolfgang Niedziella, Managing Director of the VDE Testing and Certification Institute. "Large-scale engagement is important in the world of digitalization. Particularly, we use our knowledge for product safety along with cyber security and data protection to increase the market acceptance of smart living products, applications and services. This is because the need for security in Germany is greater than in other countries."

Participants drew a positive conclusion after the first parliamentary evening of the Economic Initiative.

"We have seen that the issue of "Smart Living" is now enjoying greater attention among deputies. And here’s the special thing about it: Smart living can make a valuable contribution to sociopolitical challenges, such as CO2 reduction or the ageing population and touches on numerous policy areas", explained Ingeborg Esser.