New Chairman of the Board of VDMA East

Alexander Jakschik, Chairman of the Board of VDMA Ost and Member of the Board and Shareholder of ULT AG © ULT
Alexander Jakschik, Chairman of the Board of VDMA Ost and Member of the Board and Shareholder of ULT AG © ULT

The members of the VDMA East elected a new board of directors on January 20, 2022. Alexander Jakschik, board member and shareholder of ULT AG from Löbau, has taken over the chairmanship.

The 39-year-old Löbauer has been involved in the board of VDMA Ost since 2018 and has now been unanimously elected chairman of this body. “I am very much looking forward to working in partnership with my fellow board members and the members of the association. Over the next four years, I will do my utmost to effectively represent the approximately 350 eastern German mechanical engineering companies. The challenges facing our industry are enormous. That makes it all the more important for us to have a strong voice in politics,” says Alexander Jakschik.

The fact that the Executive Board team is broadly based will also contribute to this, he said. Members cover all eastern German regions as well as many sub-sectors. By 2025, 18 entrepreneurs from the region will have volunteered to represent the interests of the association’s eastern German members from the capital region, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.

Alexander Jakschik’s goal is a strong East German mechanical and plant engineering industry in an economically strong Germany – and that, in turn, in a strong Europe acting together economically and politically. Here he also sees the association as having a duty. “The dynamics of change are increasing with globalization: socially, economically and politically. This means that opportunities and risks for the eastern German economy are close together. The VDMA can and must support companies in preparing for this change,” he emphasizes.

He sees the biggest challenges for the eastern German economy as being
* The structural change related to environmental policy. He attributes a key role in the switch to low-CO2-emission technologies to mechanical and plant engineering.
* The catching-up process in economic performance compared to other regions, as well as
* State and federal policy, which must take greater account of region-specific characteristics. This is especially true for the entrepreneurial landscape, which is characterized by many small and medium-sized enterprises, with its increased hurdles for foreign activities, research and processing the increasing number of legal and administrative regulations.

It is important to the new Chairman of the Executive Board, Alexander Jakschik, that politics and business pull together and demands that politics strengthens Germany as a business location in general, and especially eastern Germany, so that the mechanical engineering sector there, as the heart of industry, remains competitive in the future.
The entrepreneur therefore wants to work together with his colleagues on the board and the office of the state association to ensure that

* Unproductive, bureaucratic burdens are reduced,
* Decision-making and implementation processes are accelerated,
* energy security is ensured and energy policy is balanced,
* Tax burdens for companies are kept stable or reduced,
* Support measures are designed in a business-oriented manner and
* Research and development to be promoted more intensively.

The problem of skilled workers is also particularly close to his heart. According to a survey conducted by VDMA Ost in December 2021, for example, around four out of five eastern German mechanical engineering companies are currently having difficulty filling vacancies. He is also concerned about public perception: “Too often, the public has an outdated image of the industry and of entrepreneurship. Mechanical engineering offers many exciting careers in modern, innovative companies with committed entrepreneurs. We need to communicate this even more,” says Jakschik.

About ULT AG

ULT AG is an international supplier of extraction and filtration equipment for air purification as well as systems for process air drying. The systems developed and manufactured in Löbau (Saxony) are used in a wide variety of areas in the manufacturing industry, e.g. mechanical engineering, electronics production, additive manufacturing or medical technology, but also in research and the skilled trades. ULT AG products contribute significantly to the health protection of employees and to a clean or dry production environment.
Since its foundation in 1994, the company has been on a healthy growth course, continuously opening up new areas of application and maintaining a worldwide distribution and expert network.
ULT places special emphasis on research and development, which is characterized by cooperation with research institutes and universities.
The company has been DIN EN ISO 9001 certified for more than 20 years.

Web:
www.ult.de

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