Grußwort: Eröffnung European Center of Procurement & Logistics der ZPMC (englisch)

Dr. Song,  
Mr Huang,
President Melsheimer,
Ladies and gentlemen,

first of all I’d like to thank you, Dr Song, for kindly inviting me to add my own two cents on the occasion of opening the European Center of Procurement and Logistics here in Hamburg. We do appreciate the decision of ZPMC, the world’s largest manufacturer of cranes and steel structures, to invest in this location.

Hamburg, and the People’s Republic of China are connected in many ways. Being twinned with Shanghai is one asset the people of Hamburg are enjoying year after year, with the biennial China Time” event being but one recurring highlight.

I have had the pleasure of visiting China myself, and Prime Minister Li Keqiang did us the honour of visiting Hamburg last year.

For more than a century, our relationship is growing and getting more intense step by step. China has a tradition of taking an interest in how to be a true global player all over the world.

As to Hamburg, we are keeping our doors wide open to the world as well and indeed, Hamburg is known as a city of welcome. The port of Hamburg continues to be the most important European hub for trade with many overseas countries, China being very much up front.

There's a good reason why some people say that Hamburg is China’s gateway to Europe: More than 520 representations of Chinese companies here in Hamburg are using the metropolitan region as the European platform for their services and exports to all European countries. There will be more figures when Mr Melsheimer will go into a good couple of details later.

More than just one route connects China and Hamburg, though. Centuries ago, Chinese entrepreneurs played a vital part in creating the Silk route which was used to transport ceramics,  tea and all sorts of other merchandise including silk to foreign countries. There was commercial and cultural exchange then and there is commercial and cultural exchange today if in a world that has changed and been modernized in countless ways.

The silk route, however, is also being called the route to dialogue between East and West. And rightly so, because trade routes always carry more than merchandise. Trade is made by people and people bring with them ideas, beliefs and their own culture whilst at best they pick up new ideas in reverse. As a consequence, trade does not just create work and wealth, but it can very well unite friendly minded people from the most different places all over the world.

Ladies and gentlemen,
there is no transportation, no loading or unloading without quite some effort. This is your business and it's what we all see and sense in any city with a port or a freight depot. Trade routes need infrastructure. The new maritime silk route” is made of ports and rail links and much more and building it needs the collaboration of many. ZPMC’s European Center of Procurement and Logistics will play an important role in this ambitious project. This is the reason why we are celebrating its opening today. The Center sets an important milestone or, as we are talking the maritime silk route a beacon buoy for your company and it’s for the public benefit of the city of Hamburg.

I hope for more endeavours like this one. And I hope that this one will contribute to strengthen the connection between ZPMC and Hamburg. I am hoping for a sustained dialogue to enhance our shared interests. We have many of those and commercial trade is just one of them.

You have, as I hope, already felt that you are very welcome here in Hamburg. We’d be pleased to see ZPMC extending its presence or even its parent company, CCCC, moving with a subsidiary to Hamburg. I wish you a good start for the Procurement and Logistics center and a prospering business.

Ladies and gentlemen,

it all starts with a conversation. Let's have a good abundance of conversations tonight.

Thank you.

Es gilt das gesprochene Wort.