Mayor Suh,
Consul-General,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Hamburg and Busan have enjoyed ties of friendship and trade for over 130 years. It is a great pleasure to us to give new and important momentum to the relations between our cities on this occasion. I welcome you most warmly to our Senate luncheon.
By renewing our Joint Declaration of Partnership we are again emphasizing our cooperation in the maritime industry, in trade and logistics, in art, culture and sport, in matters of health and the environment, and in the sciences. Cooperation of this kind will strengthen the ties that unite us: our citizens, our enterprises, our cultural and research institutions and our parliaments will shape and extend these ties.
But above all, Hamburg and Busan are linked by their ports. For both cities the ports are powerful locomotives of growth. We can look back on a long tradition of cooperation between them. The first German-Korean trade, shipping and friendship agreement was signed in 1883.
The port of Hamburg is a gateway for imports of Korean goods to Germany. And it is the centre of the maritime economy of the Hamburg metropolitan region. With a turnover of some 24.5 billion euros and 66,600 employees in over 2,000 enterprises the maritime economy in the north of Germany is by far the countrys most significant location for trade and logistics. The Republic of Korea is in fourth place among the ports key trading partners. 372 Hamburg companies have business connections with the country. Keeping this in mind, cooperation between the Hamburg Port Authority and the Busan Port Authority has an important function as a bridge, which we intend to strengthen.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We hope to intensify our cooperation in other fields too, besides trade and logistics. Digitization offers a further chance of extending collaboration: Hamburg is an attractive environment for the development and application of Smart Technologies, for instance in the port and transport sector, and Busan is placing increasing emphasis on the digital industries, too.
But it is at least as important to foster the cultural and scientific exchange between our cities. Over the past few decades, Hamburg has seen the establishment of numerous institutions that promote cooperation between our cities. Here I´d like to mention Hamburgs German-Korean Association, the German Asia-Pacific Business Association, our Korean churches, and not least the Korean school that was founded as long ago as 1975. Hamburg University offers a course in Korean Studies, which makes it one of the few German universities that enable students to specialize in this subject. The Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law (MPI) conducts research into Korean law at its relevant centres of excellence.
Since 2007 a vigorous cultural and artistic exchange between Hamburg and Busan has been taking place in the context of the programme Artists in Residence. And a series of events that will take place from May of this year shows how diverse the links between Hamburg and Korea have become. The people of Hamburg are looking forward to the series of Korean films at the Metropolis Cinema, and the Museum of Ethnology will be presenting Korean music. The Korean consulate-General will take part with a K-Pop Festival and will open its doors in the context of the Long Night of the Consulates.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
the Busan Bridge in Hamburgs HafenCity is a very striking example of the bonds between our cities. On a copper plate it bears a reference to Dynamic Busan. Yes: there is a resemblance between our cities in their dynamism, too.
We set ourselves similar challenges: enlargement of the port, Green and SmartCity, and not least our forthcoming campaigns to win Olympic laurels. Hamburg is an official candidate for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2024. Busan intends to enter the race for Korea in 2028. Let us make use of an exchange of ideas and experience for our mutual benefit in the form of knowledge, so that we can both make a good case and convince the IOC.
I thank all of you who help to bring life to our cooperation. Friendships between citizens, trading partners and institutions are indispensable for everybody, and even more so for major cities like Hamburg and Busan.
I hope you will enjoy your stay in Hamburg.
Thank you.
Es gilt das gesprochene Wort.