For Siemens, fiscal 2008 was a year of transition in which we drove the comprehensive, targeted development of our Company. We focused on two goals: to reduce the complexity of our organization and further accelerate our business processes. And we made solid progress on both fronts. We simplified our management structure, bundled our operations into the three Sectors Industry, Energy and Healthcare, reorganized our local business activities worldwide by forming 20 Regional Clusters, and launched a program to reduce our general, sales and administrative (SG&A) costs. In short, in fiscal 2008 we successfully implemented the most extensive Company-wide restructuring program ever executed in the history of Siemens. This achievement will enable us to continue meeting our Fit₄2010 targets for sustainable, profitable growth – even in a difficult economic environment.

Despite market turbulence, our growth did not slow in fiscal 2008. We again achieved our goal of growing at least twice as fast as world GDP. New orders rose 11 percent to €93.5 billion, and revenue climbed seven percent to €77.3 billion. Our strongest revenue growth was in Russia, where orders soared 84 percent compared to fiscal 2007. Revenue in China and India also developed exceptionally well, increasing 18 percent and 12 percent, respectively. And we’re particularly gratified to report new order growth of six percent in Germany, our home market.

Particularly in view of the factors just mentioned, it’s very important to achieve a healthy balance between equity and debt. That’s why, as part of our Fit₄2010 program, we’re working to optimize Siemens’ capital structure. Our target is to achieve a ratio of adjusted industrial net debt to EBITDA of 0.8-1.0. With this in mind, we’ve launched the most extensive share buyback program in the history of Siemens. Under this program, we intend to repurchase Company shares with a total volume of up to €10 billion by fiscal 2010. The first key steps have already been taken. On January 28, 2008, we launched the first tranche of €2 billion. By April 8, 2008, we had repurchased a total of 24.9 million shares primarily for the purpose of cancelling and reducing capital stock. On June 6, we announced a second tranche of €2 billion. By July 22, 2008, 27.9 million shares had been repurchased, bringing the total number of shares acquired so far as part of the buyback program to 52.8 million.

For us, responsibility and transparency are inseparable. Over the past 18 months, we’ve made our management and organizational structure less complex and more transparent, bringing us closer to our customers. The resulting clear, direct lines of responsibility, coupled with a portfolio geared to the needs of our customers, are accelerating our decision-making processes. We’re putting our new management principle, the so-called CEO principle, into practice at all levels of our operations – in our Sectors, Divisions and Business Units – as well as in the 20 Regional Clusters.

We made further major strides in the area of compliance – streamlining, refining and standardizing our processes worldwide. The related personnel and organizational changes have been largely completed. Our compliance organization has grown from 80 to over 600 employees worldwide. More than 120,000 employees throughout all levels of the Company have successfully completed face-to-face or online compliance training courses. Over 100,000 documents, some 127 million transactions and at least 40 million bank statements were examined by the Company last year.

The world faces massive challenges: climate change, soaring energy costs and dwindling supplies of natural resources, to name just a few. The fast-growing market for green solutions offers tremendous opportunities – and we’re ideally positioned to seize them. Encompassing systems and components for exploiting renewable energies as well as environmental technologies, the outstanding products and solutions in our Environmental Portfolio are making a direct, verifiable contribution to environmental and climate protection. More energy-efficient than most comparable offerings, our solutions are generating major benefits on three fronts: greater cost efficiency for our customers, a higher quality of life for the societies in which we’re active, and – last but not least – above-average growth for Siemens.

Siemens Answers is the name of the Company-wide communications campaign we launched in fiscal 2008 – and the name says it all. We’re leveraging our comprehensive, innovative range of products and solutions to deliver answers to the toughest questions of our time. And we’re mobilizing our strengths – responsible company management, excellent and highly motivated employees and the power of innovation – to address challenges in the areas of energy, the environment, industry and healthcare. A first in the history of our Company, the Siemens Answers campaign is implementing an integrated global communications platform spanning all media in order to heighten awareness of our brand and core messages among our target groups while promoting and supporting our business activities – all over the world.

Ever since Siemens was founded in 1847, a commitment to the welfare of society has been a key component of our Company culture. Building on this longstanding tradition, we’ve now established the Siemens Stiftung, a foundation under German civil law. The aim of the new nonprofit organization is to highlight the sustainability of our commitment to corporate citizenship while enhancing the visibility of our activities in the areas of technology, education, charitable giving, culture and the arts. Headquartered in Munich, the Siemens Stiftung will begin operation in January 2009.

In our drive to promote personal responsibility, we’ve expanded the stock-based compensation components of our remuneration system. We now require that our 500 top managers hold Siemens shares worth between 50 and 300 percent of their annual base salary. This requirement will sharpen these managers’ perception of their extraordinary individual responsibility in the Company. In addition, all 5,000 of our top and senior managers will continue to receive a portion of their remuneration in the form of stock awards. We’re currently introducing a new share matching plan for all employees – from factory workers to Managing Board members – encouraging them to participate in their Company’s success and invest in Siemens stock on a long-term basis. For every three Siemens shares acquired under the plan and held for three consecutive years, participants will receive one additional share free of charge.

The international financial crisis increasingly impacted the real economy over the course of fiscal 2008. We assume that the world economy will continue to be affected by this crisis for some time to come. All indications – including the development of commodity prices – point to a substantial slowdown in global business activity.

Although we anticipate that new order growth and, consequently, revenue growth will flatten in fiscal 2009, our full order books – with contracts worth more than €85 billion – will keep us on solid footing. The global economic situation clearly confirms the wisdom of our having restructured our Company when we did, seizing the moment to position ourselves for a future geared to growth. That’s why we see good chances of meeting our targets for fiscal 2009. We intend to continue increasing our revenue at twice the rate of world GDP. Our earnings target for the coming fiscal year is clearly even more ambitious now than when we defined it – but we're sticking to it. We’ll evaluate the repercussions of the financial crisis on the real economy on a quarterly basis.