German Chancellor and Chairwoman of the German Christian Democrats (CDU) Angela Merkel. Photo credit: Sean Gallup/Getty ImagesIn recent years, China has become Germany’s most important non-European supplier. German chancellor Angela Merkel had disclosed a while back that three-fourths of Germany’s exports to Asia are concentrated to the eastern half of the continent.
Moreover, nearly half of those supplies are delivered to China alone. Peter Altmaier, the economy minister of Germany, now has urged the nation’s companies to diversify to other Asian markets other than China, Reuters has reported.
He believes that the Covid-19 pandemic has shown that single supply chains are prone to be vulnerable to interruption.
This comes after reports of the supply of medical equipment to Germany from China being disrupted during the pandemic. Hence, Altamier has pitched the likes of Singapore and South Korea as potential markets that can be tapped by the German companies.
He asserted that these nations have managed the pandemic very well and regained their economic strength early on. “We naturally want to diversify our supply chains,” Altmaier added.
Merkel has assured that her government will improve the framework conditions as she advocated the companies to expand in new markets in the Asia-Pacific.
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