For mid-sized suppliers in particular, the setting up of an own production outlet in the vicinity of the final product manufacturer became a question of survival: They had to follow their big customers abroad.

The smaller, mid-sized networks are going to be the losers, ... The [ad] buyers have been able to achieve their [price] goals with the bigger companies.

They have a lot of big bullets, we have more smaller mid-sized shots at scoring points. It's going to take a collective effort to have the kind of success we are hoping to have at this tournament.

Central and eastern Europe -- I'll underline it again -- is a curse and blessing at the same time.

We also create income there that would spur demand for German products. And we integrate central and eastern Europe much more strongly in German economic developments than any other European country can and does.

Our estimates show that a German mid-sized business achieves, on an average, 17 percent of its turnover abroad. Against that, the 15 EU nations (before eastward expansion) are estimated to have had an export average of just 12 percent in 2002.