German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier will pledge to create 4 million new jobs by 2020 in a detailed policy paper due on Monday meant to lift his flagging election campaign. Steinmeier, who is leading the Social Democrats' into next month's election, will outline his ideas on adding new jobs in the renewable energy, healthcare and services industries. “We will show that with smart policies Germany can create a total of 4 million new jobs in the next decade,” Steinmeier wrote in his 67-page paper to be presented on Monday, excerpts of which were published in Der Spiegel news magazine on Saturday. “We want to conquer unemployment by 2020,” said Steinmeier, whose centre-left SPD is trailing Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives in polls ahead of the Sept. 27 election. The two parties ruled jointly in a grand coalition the last four years. Steinmeier's SPD is about 10 percentage points behind Merkel's Christian Democrats and their Christian Social Union Bavarian sister party in opinion polls. Merkel is on a 2-1/2 week holiday to Aug. 12. Steinmeier, 53, has already vowed to make creating jobs a centrepiece of his campaign. But before presenting his paper -- entitled “Deutschland Plan” (Germany Plan) -- he had not outlined any specific ideas on how to achieve that. Unemployment -- a sensitive issue in Germany where a surge in joblessness in the 1930s led to the rise of the Nazis -- is now at 3.4 million, or a rate of 8.2 percent. That is up from 3.2 million (7.7 percent) a year ago. Economists expect the headline unemployment level to climb towards 4 million by the end of 2009 due to the deep recession and some are even forecasting a rise towards 5 million by 2011. In his paper, Steinmeier said in the next decade two million jobs can be created in sectors that reduce energy consumption and save natural resources – along with other key green tech areas such as “electro-mobility”. Another million jobs could be created in the healthcare sector, according to the plan. Especially in the care of seniors there is scope for several hundred thousand new jobs, he said. Steinmeier believes another 500,000 new jobs can arise in the “creative economy” – such as film, media and entertainment. Also, he believes 500,000 jobs in the services and trade sectors can be created by 2020. There are now about 250,000 people employed in Germany's fast-growing renewable energies sector, which is also one of the world's leading exporters of green technology, and a total of 1.8 million employed in environmental protection.
