Part 13/16:
In 1963, East Germany introduced the New Economic System (NES), inspired by socialist reform ideas. This aimed to decentralize planning, grant autonomy to regional departments called VVBs, and incentivize profit-making, while still maintaining central controls over prices and key sectors. The reforms yielded positive results, including increased growth, technological advances in plastics, semiconductors, and nuclear energy, and a brief period of economic prosperity.