25th Anniversary Celebration in Berlin
Partnering in Business with Germany: The former Manager Training Programme gets off to a good start with a new name and a stronger emphasis on partnership.
The celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of the BMWK foreign trade promotion scheme took place in Berlin with numerous international associates and guests over the course of two days. The new Programme name was launched on this occasion: “Partnering in Business with Germany”.
Dr Robert Habeck, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and Vice Chancellor, welcomed more than 250 guests in the auditorium of the ministry saying: “The Partnering in Business with Germany Programme is one of the most effective programmes and has a very simple approach: We create spaces, but the entrepreneurs are the ones who do business.” Habeck particularly stressed the partnership approach the Programme has always pursued and wants to focus on even more through the new name as being unique and decisive for the success of the Programme. He said it is not just a matter of “partnership in business relations, but also of political partnership and, when things go well, also of human partnership”. Habeck added that “celebrating, maintaining, continuing and believing in it” is a central mission of today.
Representatives of the partner ministries in 17 countries, embassies, industry-related organisations and German enterprises, but also participants and alumni of the Programme followed the invitation of the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. They all looked ahead to the future and the flexibility of the Programme, which is continually adapting to the new needs and challenges of the moment.
In her speech, Dr Gihan Saleh, Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister of the Arab Republic of Egypt, emphasised the Programme’s potential, using Egypt, a significant partner of the Programme, as an example. In her opinion, the Programme and thus the exchange not only enriches business contacts, but also increases turnover and therefore makes an important contribution to the bilateral economic relations between Germany and Egypt.
It has been demonstrated again and again that partnership is an essential component of Partnering in Business with Germany. At the ceremony, Jonathan Gutierrez, Project Manager for Renewable Energy at Membranas Los Volcanes, and entrepreneur Thomas Dory from BERT Energy GmbH gave a vivid presentation of their successful story. The Mexican and German business partners got to know each other through the Programme and understood each other straight away. A joint innovative business idea for a mobile biogas plant with new fermenter technology has since developed into a partnership based on mutual trust.
For Kyzzhibek Ryszkanova, Deputy Director of KelesHydroStroy LLP, and her business partner Martina Römmelt-Fella, Managing Director of the German family-owned company DIVE Turbinen GmbH & Co. KG, which realises hydropower projects all over the world, the trusting relationship is paramount. Partnering in Business with Germany brought the two businesswomen from Kazakhstan and Germany together. Their cooperation over the past five years has been very successful, and both companies benefit from the cooperation through growth, export and internationalisation.
Green economy in focus
On the second day of the anniversary celebration, there was a conference titled “Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) as engines for trade and green innovation”. The emphasis of the event was on the BMWK’s key topics of circular economy and energy efficiency in economic activities. In forums with national and international experts from the fields of science, politics and business, the participants discussed how the use of energy-efficient technologies can be boosted and the circular economy utilised. Because, as Dr Dorothea Schütz from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action stressed, “an energy-efficient economy is the key component for a sustainable future”.
In his speech, Idesh Batkhuu, State Secretary of the Mongolian Ministry of Economy and Development, emphasised the relevance of green business for the global economy, which the Partnering in Business with Germany programme will focus on more strongly in future. Examples of successes, challenges and visions from the partner countries around energy-efficient economy and existing cooperation projects that resulted from Partnering in Business with Germany were vividly presented by successful business tandems and discussed among the participants during the event – ranging from waste avoidance, the reduction of energy and water consumption in production processes to the use of secondary raw materials, investments in technologies and the necessity of global standards for decarbonisation.
The participants left the conference with numerous visionary ideas and the knowledge of a good network. Partnering in Business with Germany will also increase its focus on these areas. New industry and topic-specific cooperation formats were developed in the past few years – for example, as of this year more consideration is being given to industries that reduce the emission of CO2 and contribute to decarbonisation – and will continue to be adapted to current events in the future. Dr Schütz emphasised that “one of the Programme’s strengths is that it continues to develop and gain strength from year to year”.
