German Industry
Standardization promotes trade in products and services and is an instrument for preventing technical barriers to trade. The benefits of standardization are estimated as being around 16 billion euros per year.
Germany is an export "world champion" and its economy greatly depends on a short time-to-market of innovative technologies. Standardization promotes trade in products and services, and by unifying requirements for material and immaterial goods prevents technical barriers to trade. It also contributes to the rapid dissemination of technical knowledge and innovation, thus strengthening the economy's competitive capability.
The economic benefits of standardization have been estimated at 16 billion euros a year for Germany alone, which is nearly 1% of the gross national product. Standards have a greater effect on economic growth than patents or licences. The potential of innovative technologies and their dissemination with the help of standards is crucial to economic success. These and other results of a research project carried out by the Technical University Dresden and the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovations are described in detail in "Economic benefits of standardization ".
The German standardization strategy is helping business and society strengthen, develop and open up regional and global markets.
A self-managing organ of the economic sector, DIN the German Institute for Standardization is responsible for technical standardization in Germany and represents German interests in international and European standards organizations.
