By the end of 1995, renovation and modernization work had been performed in more than three million dwellings in the new federal states with financial resources provided by the Federal Government, and about 80,000 new dwellings had been built. Since the establishment of monetary union between the former GDR and the Federal Republic in July 1990, including the figures for 1996, the Federal Government has invested more than DM 68 billion in the transport infrastructure °f the new federal states: DM 36 billion for railways, about DM 18 billion for trunk roads and nearly DM1 billion for waterways. Since 1990 nearly 11,000 kilometers of roads and 5,000 kilometers of track have been improved, rebuilt or newly built.

An additional DM 10 billion are earmarked for improvement of the transport infrastructure in the new states in 1997. The Deutsche Bahn has set itself an ambitious goal for the year 2002: By then it will have invested approximately DM 70 billion in order to bring the rail equipment and facilities in eastern Germany up to western standards In the area of Telekom, a telephone connection rate of 95 percent of all households is to be achieved by 1997.

In the past few years, small and medium-sized enterprises in particular have shown themselves to be a driving force behind recovery in the new states. To date more than 500,000 persons there have become self-employed, 118,000 in the craft trades alone. A wide variety of financial incentives and consultancy support the investment activity in the new federal states. These include: