Pütter: I'm pleased to say that people are taking a rational approach to private equity once more. In recent months, discussion on this subject has become less emotional, and the new German government, along with many private companies, has recognized the macroeconomic importance of venture capital.

Pütter: Private equity investment benefits all those involved and often creates jobs. As well as having good products, if their ideas are to bear fruit, then companies also need capital and business know-how. Only companies that are prospering can turn innovations and patents into hard currency, create jobs, and increase prosperity for all, and private equity is indispensable for these companies.

Pütter: We urgently need to pull out all the stops to create a climate that fosters the establishment of high-technology companies and ensures they receive funding. The USA, with its vibrant private equity market, is well ahead of us in this – you only need to look at the number of start-ups there to see that.

Pütter: That's absolutely true, but that alone is not enough. The "High-Tech" fund wants to invest around 270 million euros over five years. Over five years! The tiny state of Israel makes 350 million US dollars available to its Chief Scientist every year, and that's in a country where the population is only a seventh of the size of Germany's population. Opportunity upon opportunity for creating new ventures and innovations in our own country is still passing us by.

Pütter: We are not talking about millions of euros of taxpayers' money here: the key line of approach is to mobilize private capital to create private equity, that is attract investment from pension funds, banks, insurance companies, public institutions and charitable foundations. The high savings ratio in Germany offers huge potential, and the more urgent it becomes to provide for our futures, the more sense it makes to profit from the above-average yields private equity provides.

Pütter: On the one hand prejudice and fear – last year, for example, international investors were referred to as "locusts." On the other, venture capital funds in Germany that help companies out by providing know-how as well as capital currently run the risk of being classed as commercial ventures, meaning they lose their tax status as asset managers and thus become unattractive to investors.

This is why we are calling for a law on private equity that once and for all puts venture capital funds on an equal footing with other investment funds as far as tax is concerned, for example. Something like this would cost the taxpayer nothing, but could help to make Germany an attractive and competitive private equity location, helping to bring about prosperity, employment and social security for all.

Thomas U.W. Pütter is Chief Executive of Allianz Capital Partners GmbH and Chairman of the German Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVK).

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