"The state should only be able to buy shares in a company in very important cases and for a limited time," Altmaier said at a Berlin press conference outlining a "national industrial strategy 2030". SEE ALSO: Germany to tighten rules on foreign takeovers"We plan to create a national investment mechanism" to implement the scheme, he added, promising clear rules rather than "capricious" decisions on when to intervene. Altmaier's project is a marked break with conventional German economicthinking, which prescribes minimal state involvement in markets. Berlin in December tightened takeover rules for "critical infrastructure"sectors like energy, defence and telecoms, lowering the threshold for thegovernment to review and possibly block foreign firms taking stakes in German ones. Germany has not experienced the same decline of industrial jobs ascomparable European economies like France or Britain.

Source: The Local February 05, 2019 13:52 UTC