Grußwort: Auftakt GIGA Distinguished Speaker Lecture Series (englisch)
Professor Narlikar,
Professor Bhagwati,
Doyen,
Members of the Consular Corps,
Members of the Hamburg Parliament,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In the name of the Senate, I´d like to welcome you most cordially here in our town hall. It is my pleasure to open this very first lecture of the GIGA Distinguished Speaker Lecture Series which, hopefully, will be a long and successful one.
When Professor Narlikar came to us with the idea to organize this lecture series, we were more than delighted. Professor Narlikar, of course, is president of the German Institute of Global and Area Studies, GIGA. She was introduced in October 2014 and we are pleased. With a great deal of experience, expertise and innovation, she adds much value to the scientific community of Hamburg. With her research interests in negotiation analysis, rising powers and trade politics we are pleased to know that GIGA´s intentions of working together closely with the local government here in Hamburg P are already starting to bear fruit.
The main point is to bring together research and politics, to take academic debates into the world outside of academia. Hamburg itself is perceived as a gateway to the world not only in its economic but also in its academic reputation. Not only do we have numerous institutions that are renowned in research. Hamburg is also host to innovative projects excelling in interdisciplinary cooperation. However, there is always room for improvement.
GIGA is a leading institute doing research on the regions of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Thanks to the highly motivated GIGA staff and to the substantial support of the Federal Foreign Office, GIGA becomes more and more visible. It has a unique expertise and knowledge to understand the players outside of the western world and estimate their influence.
After the decline of the Soviet Union, the world has faced major power shifts. From a clearly bipolar world order during the cold war the world has changed into a multipolar one. The BRICS countries are rising as global powers.
Right now, the need for research and competence in regional studies is even less dispensable than ever. Even more than others, trading cities like Hamburg need to create global networks. And I´d like to highlight why BRICS states are important to us, even more so as we are having Indian guests here today.
Hamburg and India have been close for ages and Indias importance as a trading partner has grown fast, mainly in shipping traffic. The consulate general of India in Hamburg was opened in 1954 and this is a good leap in time now the Hamburg Representation in Mumbai was set up in 2011. With its specific knowledge about Hamburg and India and valuable local contacts, it supports companies as well as economic, cultural and academic institutions in initializing or intensifying relations.
More than 400 Hamburg companies do business with India; about 100 of them have an office in the country. There are representations or offices of more than fourty Indian companies in our city. As an important trading partner for Hamburg, the country ranked tenth among the trading partners of the Port of Hamburg last year.
There are many institutions and organisations in Hamburg in contact with India concerning economic matters, such as the German-Indian Round Table (GIRT).
With regard to science, I know of several projects of cooperation and exchange programmes between Hamburg and Indian universities and research institutes. Moreover, in 2012, one out of six German Houses of Research and Innovation (=DWIHs) worldwide was opened in New Delhi.
Back home, there´s our India Week, a biennial series of events which will take place for the 6th time in early November this year, emphasizing the good relations between Hamburg and India in culture, politics, society, economy, and science. India Week initiates new opportunities for cooperation and supports many ways of networking. In 2013, about 50 events took place and attracted around 20.000 visitors. I am looking forward to a successful India Week 2015 and hope to maybe welcome a good many of you there.
The main reason we are here today, however, is to listen to the lecture Professor Doctor Jagdish Natwarlal Bhagwati is going to give. He will be adequately introduced by Professor Narlikar in a few minutes but if I may, I can antedate this anecdote: Professor Bhagwati is the winner the fictional winner so far of the Nobel Prize in Economics in one episode of The Simpsons. Perhaps this will become reality
I, for one, wish you best of luck and success.
Today, Professor Bhagwati will be giving a lecture on the topic of Trade Issues Today: WTO, Transatlantic and Transpacific Agreements. I am much looking forward to this lecture. And that is not only because Hamburg is a city of trade and commerce which profits well from globalization. Hamburg as part of the Hanse has seen the benefits of free trade early on and just now, both transatlantic cooperation and European integration are constantly on our minds.
TTIP, the forthcoming Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, is under much debate these days, which is hardly surprising. I don´t deny to be much in favour of this partnership becoming reality, despite the inevitable umpteen difficulties that make it hard to agree on the details. I do not want to anticipate any of the theses we are going to hear in a minute and yet I believe that in Professors Bhagwatis opinion, chances of the partnership to actually be signed by all 28 member states of the EU look rather smallish.
But no matter if this agreement is signed or not we need to make a decision whether we want to look solely to the West when it concerns our economy or whether we should see the whole world. As I mentioned earlier the BRICS countries are rising powers and have their own dynamics. Those countries and their economic influence should not be underestimated. However, in general we should be aware of the fact that the WTO already exists and this global organization might be just what we need in order to make globalization more efficient and, most importantly, more of what we´d like to call fair.
Professor Bhagwati, for all I know, argues that the increasing number of bilateral agreements and the failure of completing the DOHA-round may undermine the WTO. He does have a point there. I think we should go ahead with some of those agreements but overacting fragmentation might, more or less inevitably, lead to markets in developing countries being reaped by dominant developed countries who act in their own interest. And additionally, will bring about a situation where the Dispute Settlement Body of the WTO will have to make its own rules and once those have been established they can be used as precedence. So I still do hope the DOHA round will be followed through with satisfactory results.
As you see, ladies and gentlemen, we are having an interesting evening ahead of us. After the lecture there will be some time for the audience to raise a question or two.
I am looking forward to an insightful and pleasant event with a lively debate.
Once again a warm welcome to Professor Bhagwati and Professor Narlikar to whom I would like to give the floor now.
Thank you very much.
Es gilt das gesprochene Wort.