Ladies and Gentlemen,
A very warm welcome to Hamburg!
I have been told that you spent the day getting more closely acquainted with Hamburg and the citys willingness to embrace new technology.
I do hope that you have gained a good impression of the forces for innovation at work in our city and its economy. The port is a good place to see how important it is to adapt to changing markets as soon as possible.
Hamburg and its cargo handling firms were among the first in the world to adopt the new business of container shipping. Within the space of a few years, containers then radically changed port operations all over the world. To this day, state of the art terminals, good transport infrastructure and a permanent willingness to make the smart port even smarter, and therefore even more digital, are part of what makes Hamburg Port a success.
A key concern in our digital age is how to manage disruptive technologies. Prosperous and economically successful regions are now faced with the task of mounting a clever and, above all, timely response to the threat that previously successful business models will be destroyed by new ones.
Change management is an issue that now affects every sphere of business and social interaction.
We have experienced various waves of digitalization, and there are more to come:
It began when digitalization offered new platforms for communication and opportunities to disseminate information. In Hamburg, as elsewhere, this is a major issue for the local media and creative communities.
The second wave has brought changes in production and manufacturing processes, and the structure of logistics chains. This new world of Industry 4.0, when it will be normal for smart devices to exchange information amongst themselves, opens up enormous opportunities for a high-tech country like Germany. But we will have to move quickly, if we want to retain our position on the global market for mechanical engineering and similar industries.
In the third wave, the one dominating current debate, we are seeing digital technologies infiltrate deeper and deeper into our daily lives and public spaces.
Whatever the desired outcome traffic management, consumer-friendly communication between residents and local government, or attractive and easily accessible educational schemes - the method of choice is always a digital technology: it carries the promise that we can make better use of resources and provide services in a better way.
Smart city seems to have emerged as the accepted term to describe this third wave. Im not sure whether this term is really the right one. Because I sincerely hope that public administration has always been smart. What constitutes the smart city is not very sharply defined, so that everyone is free to understand the concept the way he or she would like to. That is a difficult situation for any policy-maker.
Therefore I would prefer to speak of a need to create the digital city so we make it clear what kind of change, and disruptive technology, we intend to utilize. And we are also pointing to the fact that the greatest and most rapid benefits will show in the cities.
The reason is that in the major metropolises infrastructure, population and business density are all high enough to profit from the opportunities offered by digitalization.
This will not, however, happen unless a city has political leaders with a clear, creative vision and a government that sees new technologies as a chance for further improvements. Hamburg has both.
In order to provide an academic framework for this process, we will collaborate with HafenCity University and MIT Media Lab to establish a Digital City Science Lab. This is to incubate a think tank for the issues facing modern digital cities; it will engage in basic research and applications-oriented projects and will be explicitly open to partner companies if the latter wish.
In January the Senate passed its Digital City strategy paper, detailing what potential the digitalization of the city can unlock. Our aim is to create a climate for innovation in Hamburg that is conducive to the development of modern, digital applications and will promote networking between the enterprises and institutions involved.
We intend to use municipal action to stimulate, facilitate and support innovation. To this end, we need not only suitable administrative structures, but must also ensure that, in the process, the people living in Hamburg can contribute their views and voice their concerns.
Incidentally, universities should likewise benefit from what digitalization can offer. Therefore we in Hamburg are working to set up an open internet university for which the state universities develop joint curricula, so that an increasing amount of study and tuition can take place online, ensuring that Hamburg remains an important centre of learning and is also perceived as such by students.
I am sure that digitalization will become increasingly important in every part of society. And that in future this will not just mean new technical gadgets and changes in how businesses operate, but will revolutionize the way we live and interact.
Therefore it is our task, as the city government, to steer new developments and use digitalization to enhance the quality of life and boost the economy.
Many government departments are already busy adopting new digital technologies to improve their services and make them easier for the public to access. Many companies and advocacy groups are also creating new digital schemes, including some relating to public services.
We welcome and will actively promote this development. Therefore the City will put the opportunities offered by digitalization on the agenda of every suitable initiative or project that it sponsors or supports.
Some areas in which the digitalization of the city has already started are:
(1) Digital Infrastructure: The citizens of Hamburg are to have adequate access to broadband internet services. Private enterprises must build and operate the networks, but the Senate can create the appropriate regulatory framework. Public Wi-Fi hotspots in many different places in the city are to offer fast internet connections to residents, tourists and business travellers.
(2) Digital Communication: These days residents expect, quite rightly, the state to use all modern forms of communication to keep them informed and posted about what is happening. It therefore goes without saying that we provide digital content enabling the public to access information about the actions of government and administration. But that is not the end of the line.
The new culture embraced by the state government includes even greater use of digital communication via, for instance, the Transparency Portal, in order to give our citizens rapid and full information. Hamburg is the first state in the German Federation in which government action can, basically, be followed step by step on the internet. We have developed the statutory basis in collaboration with the Chaos Computer Club, Transparency International and other advocacy groups.
This generates fresh trust - which is important: the digitalization of the city will only be a success if the residents play their part too. Therefore it is most important to develop suitable forms of citizen participation for the process of strategy design and implementation.
Moreover, there must obviously be guarantees that no projects compromise IT security and data protection.
(3) Digital Public Services: Digitalization can provide the crucial stimulus to set about modernizing public infrastructure and transportation. Smart educational networks and digital programmes can improve and expand access to education. In addition, the digital age opens up opportunities to achieve enormous energy savings through smart controls and ways to avoid the emission of greenhouse gases.
In coming years, innovation processes such as the continued development of the Internet of Things, or the automation of knowledge work, will lead to further potential for modernization that points the way ahead.
Private partners are needed in order to complete many of these specific digitalization projects, because only they have the necessary technical skills.
These include not only our major IT service provider Dataport, but also large IT and technology groups or small start-up companies.
These partnerships make sense if we want to secure the best possible technical standards and ensure that they can be developed to the next stages.
However, since we bear political responsibility, we must very carefully weigh up which sovereign tasks we should do ourselves and where cooperation with business makes sense. Without doubt it makes sense to promote new business models the citizens of a centuries-old merchant city like Hamburg do not need to be persuaded of that. But it must also be clear that the digitalization of the city is not a programme to privatize the state by stealth.
A clear distinction between these two poles is one of the key preconditions if the entire process is to succeed.
If we succeed - and at the moment that would seem to be the case in Hamburg - we will be able to make our cities even more liveable in future and make greater, yet more efficient use of the sources of our prosperity in the city.
It is the politicians job to make sure everyone benefits, so that an acceptance of change leads to growing enthusiasm for the new.
If such enthusiasm underpins civic society, a lot can happen. Major developments can be set in motion, like the ones we describe in our concept for a bid to host the Olympic Games in the summer of 2024. Most people in the city are already On Fire for Hamburg and the Olympic idea.
If, when the German Olympic Sports Confederation meets this month, it decides that Hamburg should make the bid, we shall be able to present an even clearer and more compelling demonstration of what the modern city looks like, and our urban development will be a mixture of passion and a good sense of proportion.
Thank you very much.
Es gilt das gesprochene Wort.