largely to the children of Turkish immigrants.

Both sides secured changes to the pension system that they had sought and Kloeckner stressed on ZDF television that "we will have no tax increases and we will run up no new debts from 2015". The conservatives adamantly refused to raise taxes, which the Social Democrats had advocated during the election campaign.

Negotiators said the parties would not allocate jobs in the new government until the Social Democrats completed their membership ballot. That could be tricky because the "grand coalition", while popular among voters, is disliked by party activists and the Social Democrats suffered a heavy electoral defeat in 2009 after serving as Merkel's junior governing party in her first term. The party finished a distant second in this year's vote.

"The Social DemocraticFollow Us

Dr. Brian Li

Organisation: GP Industries Limited

Position in the organisation: Managing Director

Biography note: Dr. Li is the Managing Director of the Singapore-listed GP Industries Limited. GP Industries is an international manufacturing and marketing group in the acoustics, electronics and batteries industries. The GP Industries Group controls two of the world-renowned premium acoustics brands, “KEF” and “Celestion”. GP Industries is also the largest shareholder of GP Batteries Limited, one of the World’s leading manufacturers in consumer batteries. Dr. Li worked in the electronic engineering and manufacturing industry in Hong Kong, China and internationally for more than 30 years. Dr. Li is the vice chairman of The Hong Kong Electronic Industries Association. He also serves as a member of the Hong Kong Electronics Industry Council of the Federation of Hong