The Economy Ministry in Berlin and the Germany Trade & Invest company (GTAI) said Wednesday they'd identified six markets which would be of utmost importance for German exporters in the future. They cited China, South Korea, Britain, Colombia, Indonesia and Ghana as the nations strategically most critical for German companies delivering goods and services abroad.

"Despite their differences, these countries have all shown above-average growth rates and a robust business environment," said Stefan Kapferer, undersecretary in the Economy Ministry.

He said a special advertizing and information offensive would be launched to encourage small and medium-sized companies to become more active on the markets in question.

Sharper focus

GTAI spokesman Benno Bunse argues the selected countries were promising markets for German high-tech products from both the environment technology and health sectors. "Prospects are also promising with regard to our machine tool exports," Bunse added.

The president of the Federation of German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services (BGA), Anton Börner, recalled that German exports last year amounted to little under 200 billion euros ($275.8 billion), with a new record expected to be logged in 2014.

But he warned German foreign trade could only pick up further, if new markets were explored. He explicitly rejected recent criticism of Germany's staggering trade surplus, saying it was wrong to claim the country was living at the cost of other EU member states.

"On the contrary, through our extensive export activities we have enabled many fellow European neighbors to get a foot in the door of world markets in the first place," Börner maintained.

hg/dr (Reuters, dpa)