By the year 2000, public-sector spending is to be trimmed back to approximately 46 percent of the gross domestic product - the figure prior to unification - and the sum total of social security contributions is to be reduced to about 40 percent. Adjustments and cutbacks are thus inevitable.

One key feature of the action program is an offensive to encourage entrepreneurial initiative and innova-tiveness. The aim is to foster a new culture of self-employment and prompt a surge in the founding of new businesses. This means steps must be taken to improve the starting position of young entrepreneurs in the marketplace. Another important task is to prevent a further rise in statutory incidental wage costs and reduce social insurance contributions; the object is not to dismantle the welfare state but rather to modify the social security system in line with demographic changes and altered global economic conditions to safeguard its future and increasingly focus assistance on the truly needy.

Moreover, the action program cites measures such as the following: ^opening up new opportunities for employment byencouraging firms to create new jobs; ^enhancing economic adaptability by examining the practice of granting subsidies;}>promoting entrepreneurial activity by reducing regulation and improving access to markets, in other words, more employment through more competition; and ^improving vocational skills: investments in education and training are investments in the future. Another important measure to safeguard the Federal Republic of Germany’s future attractiveness is the major tax reform, which envisions a simpler system of taxation that is more conducive to productivity.

The statutory pension insurance scheme must likewise be revamped. Draft bills have meanwhile been prepared or benchmark figures compiled for both of these projects.