SIEMENS TO ESTABLISH BERLIN INNOVATION HUB

GERMAN industrial giant Siemens is to set up a major innovation campus in Berlin, housing research laboratories and hi-tech production facilities, the company announced yesterday. According to an agreement signed by Berlin mayor Michael Mueller and Siemens executive member Cedrik Neike, investment in the campus will total up to €600 million (about R10 billion) to be spent on offices and residential accommodation as well as laboratories and production plants. The project, which is titled Siemensstadt (Siemens City) 2.0, aims to create a new living and working environment. The company set up its first Siemensstadt on the outskirts of Berlin at the end of the 19th century. The investment is the largest single investment by the company in Berlin, which maintains headquarters in both Berlin and Munich. Siemens chief executive Joe Kaeser described the campus as a “networked ecosystem with flexible working conditions, social integration and affordable accommodation”. Mueller described the company’s commitment to Berlin as providing an impulse for the next 20 years. “Jobs will be created, science will benefit, and infrastructure will be developed,” he predicted. Siemens currently employs more than 11 000 workers in Berlin.