Policy Lab

Peer review for the Berlin Senate on 12-13 December 2024 - adapting foreign trade support to changing European and global environments   The Senatsverwaltung für Wirtschaft, Energie und Betriebe (Berlin Senate Department for Economic Affairs, Energy and Public Enterprises) complements the foreign trade instruments of Germany’s federal government by promoting location-specific internationalisation of Berlin’s business community.   The Foreign Trade Strategy of the Berlin Senate provides policy guidance for the regional support schemes and the city’s international offices. The strategy is implemented in close collaboration with key business stakeholders, such as city’s business promotion agency “Berlin Partner” and Berlin’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK). Jointly, the partners decide on the bi-annual prioritisation of target countries.   The peer review served as an opportunity to reflect on the current prioritisation methodology, and to discuss how to consider resilience and sustainability principles in future international business promotion.   Our six excellent peers provided valuable insights in their approaches to foreign trade support. Inma Rodriguez Lopez and Giulia Diamante - ACCÍO, Catalonia Kolja Harders - Ministry of Economy and Innovation of Hamburg Marek Tiits - Policy Lab, Estonia Peter Jaspers - Flanders Investment and Trade Strategy Office Sara French - Trade & Growth, London & Partners Together with the Berlin team, they engaged in the co-creation of targeted policy recommendations, inter alia diving into:   - methodologies combining quantitative and qualitative approaches for sector and target country prioritisation (“contrasting”) - methodologies for comprehensive internationalisation impact monitoring - digital analytical tools providing product- and market-specific data - the need for new and smart sustainability-oriented policy incentives.   Strategically, our peers, hosts and local stakeholders jointly reflected on the value of Berlin’s Foreign Trade Strategy, underlining the assets of the policy to:   - give directionality for Berlin’s business ecosystem - set and communicate priorities for foreign trade support - ensure coherence with Berlin-Brandenburg’s innovation strategy - enable stakeholder governance and strengthen ownership for the policy.   As the peer review team of the Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform (Schmerber Luc; Rene Tõnnisson; Thorsten Kohlisch), we would like to thank our hosts for their great professionalism, commitment and hospitality, the local stakeholders for their active engagement during both days, and our six peers for their valuable insights and reflections.   We look forward to continuing working with all of you! Jens Homann Eda Özbay Carolin Fiedler Dr. Valentina Knezevic Sami Bettaieb Markus Facklam Nadine Jüdes Thomas Honeck Nicolas Singer

Policy Lab contributes to the policy review of the Foreign Trade Strategy of the State of Berlin The Federal State of Berlin, through the Berlin Senate Department for Economic Affairs, Energy and Public Enterprises, has invited Policy Lab to assist in a policy review of its Foreign Trade Strategy. The review will consider methods for selecting areas for international cooperation, and approaches for identifying target countries. The review will also consider resilience, sustainability, and other factors that guide trade policies and country selection. “Policy Lab will share its experience in identifying export opportunities in different time frames, as well as strategies to reduce import dependences that involve states with geopolitical tensions,” says Marek Tiits, a partner at Policy Lab. The purpose is to gather insights to support adjustments to the Foreign Trade Strategy. Policy Lab will work with experts from ACCIÓ in Catalonia, the Ministry of Economy and Innovation in Hamburg, Flanders Investment and Trade, and London & Partners.

The average labor cost per unit of output has surged by a whopping 60-70% since 2015 in the Baltic States. This increase far exceeds the 20% rise in unit labor costs observed in key export markets such as Finland, Sweden, and Germany, as well as the eurozone average during the same period. There's a pressing need for a significant effort of industrial upgrading to close this still widening gap between productivity and wage growth. Cc: TalTech Industrial, TalTech School of Business and Governance, Institute of Baltic Studies