“We don’t have to hide here in the Vest”

At the end of June, Torsten Jakob was re-elected as chairman of the Mittelstand- und Wirtschaftsvereinigung (MIT) of the CDU in the Recklinghausen district.

Torsten Jakob heads the medium-sized and business association (MIT) of the CDU. He sees MIT as the engine for digitization, tourism and the establishment of start-ups in the region. He talks about the effects of the pandemic on companies, delivery difficulties with raw materials and the opportunities for Ostvest to create new jobs.

How is the mood in the middle class?

Torsten Jakob: It varies a lot from industry to industry. If we look at the online retailers, we know that they are very satisfied and happy. On the other hand, we have the concerns of the manufacturing industry: A supplier to the automotive industry cannot produce if the chips that it is supposed to install cannot be delivered. I also know that from our industry in the sanitary sector: there are bottlenecks in shower partitions and tiles.

What role do the price increases for raw materials and building materials play?

Jakob: A big one. Entrepreneurs fulfill their orders for the money that was agreed when the contract was signed, but are faced with the problem that the material has become much more expensive.

How can you prevent companies from being burdened by extreme price increases?

Jakob: With the NRW SME Union, we are already dealing with the price escalation clause. This enables companies to adjust the price of a commodity when their own costs increase.

Business associations have welcomed the fact that with the end of the emergency brake, the obligation for companies to allow their employees to work from home expired. How do you feel about the home office?

Jakob: I can well understand that companies are relieved that they no longer have to offer it – even if, of course, I saw the necessity. But you shouldn’t make that an obligation after Corona. Companies themselves know best where it is and where it is not. Although I’m also speaking for industries in which home office is not at all practical. Let’s take the nursing staff – we have learned that they are systemically relevant. Or the installer. He cannot repair the broken water pipe from his laptop.

How did you handle it yourself in your company?

Jakob: We can’t afford not to be available on site. When the customer is at the door and needs a spare part, he wants to be helped. Of course, I also spent half a day in the home office, and of course we have also reduced our teams to the car to protect against infection.

We come to a current topic: Ten days ago the Ruhr Parliament decided that the controversial industrial area Dillenburg should be pursued as long as the cities of Datteln and Oer-Erkenschwick do not present adequate alternatives. And that after the city councils in both cities had spoken out against this plan. Do the interests of cities and citizens play no role in the RVR?

Jakob: Basically, I think it’s right that the overall package with 24 intermunicipal business parks has been approved. Otherwise, the planning could not be advanced even where commercial development is undisputed. Perhaps it would have been wiser for Ostvest to act like Dorsten. There, too, there was resistance to the planned area. But those responsible in the town hall suggested a different area from the start. I haven’t heard anything like it from Datteln and Oer-Erkenschwick. This also raises the question of solidarity.

What do you mean?

Jakob: Waltrop has not been granted any additional space in order to grow economically. So I would have liked Waltrop to have had a chance if Datteln and Oer-Erkenschwick hadn’t pursued this interest. We have to state that the space is finite, but we cannot miss the economic connection.

Have the politicians in Datteln and Oer-Erkenschwick buckled under pressure from the citizens?

Jakob: That is a political question that I cannot answer. I’m not close enough for that either. As MIT chairman, I can only say: We need space in a circle.

The local elections changed the composition of the city councils. Do you share the impression that the CDU is getting greener, especially in Datteln and Oer-Erkenschwick?

Jakob: I don’t want to judge that for dates. The colleagues have only been there too short for that. You are welcome to ask me the question again in a year. In Oer Erkenschwick, I think the city is doing a good job of combining climate protection with job-creating measures.

But by now you are guaranteed to have an opinion on whether the B 474n actually needs to be built. Do such huge road construction projects still fit into our time?

Jakob: Of course we need this road to adequately connect the NewPark. This industrial park is associated with the greatest economic potential, and not only in Ostvest. We have to harmonize this project ecologically and economically so that the result is a social market economy. We cannot do without creating jobs, or even keeping them. And at some point we have to show our colors. The considerations for the NewPark and the B474n are already 20 years old.

The magic word for the economic upturn in the region is hydrogen technology. Do you believe in it?

Jakob: I firmly believe in this technology. As a medium-sized business union in the district, we have been dealing with it since 2016, the topic really picked up speed in 2018 and in 2020 our hydrogen congress received nationwide attention. Hydrogen combines sustainability and climate protection – that’s exactly where we need to go. First of all, we have to support our existing industry in such a way that green technology, i.e. hydrogen, reaches them in terms of infrastructure. However, hydrogen production in Lingen alone has not yet been sufficient. Not to supply medium-sized companies from it anyway.

There are quite a few skeptics who still rely on the gas.

Jakob: Gas is not our future. Carbon pricing is the right way to be carbon neutral by 2045. That is ambitious, but the right way to go. And the economy goes along with it, it does something. Hydrogen from Lingen and the pipeline to us in the Ruhr area are driven by the economy. But politics must create faster and less stringent framework conditions.

How will Ostvest benefit from this?

Jakob: You need the right power in town halls and in politics to play a part in this sector. Herten showed the way when a large fuel cell manufacturer settled here. Of course, I am familiar with the discussions about the fact that such a company does not create the mass of jobs. But if we fail to offer the space for it, others will do it. A lot is happening in Duisburg. We can’t let them overtake us.

The decision-making paths are also shorter than in a circle like Recklinghausen.

Jakob: That’s right. But there is no point in complaining. If we agree with our ten cities in the circle what we want, we can develop enormous potential. It is important that the district administration takes the lead, for example with digitization. We put pressure on for a long time, now under Bodo Klimpel as district administrator, the issue is finally being pushed. However, I would also like to see more determination in tourism.

What do you have in mind?

Jakob: We have a lot to offer in the Recklinghausen district, and by that I don’t just mean our industrial monuments. I’m thinking of gastronomy, hotels, culture and our water places, especially in Datteln and Waltrop. All of this has to come together at an interface and be bundled in order to make the offerings visible. That doesn’t happen, everyone does their own thing. Here, too, digitization is the key word. We need a coordination office to connect to Ruhr tourism. Because: we don’t have to hide.