Dear Lord Mayor,
Dear Excellency,
Dear Vice-President Wersich,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Allow me to wish you a very warm welcome to Hamburg Town Hall. I am pleased that you have taken the opportunity to also visit the partner city of Hamburg during your stay for the climate conference in Bonn. And I am sure that you were also drawn to Germany by the prospect of seeing Hamburg and the Elbphilharmonie.
Our cities have been working together for a good twelve years now; we have had an official city partnership since 2010.
All around the world, people are increasingly moving into cities cities are drivers of growth as well as centres of productivity and creativity. And that is why the solutions for overcoming global challenges will be devised in cities.
Large cities and, even more so, large port cities and industrial hubs such as Dar es Salaam and Hamburg, are oriented towards the successes and ideas of others. We can learn from one another and make progress together.
Dar es Salaam is not only the largest city in Tanzania, it is the economic and cultural centre of the east African country on the Indian Ocean.
We are delighted that Dar es Salaam has continuously been interested in cooperating with the global port city of Hamburg. Port and logistics industries are key areas for our collaboration, but we also cooperate in the fields of science, culture and education.
Hamburg is a centre of medical and life science technologies as well as tropical medicine. I am pleased that our cities are coming together in practical fields for instance through the longstanding cooperation between the Association for International Medical Cooperation (VIMZ) and the Amana municipal hospital, or through the dialogue process between the social welfare organisation Diakonie Hamburg and Tanzanian healthcare experts.
Another issue that is important to us is a critical assessment of our colonial past; the North-South Dialogue and dealing with the post-colonial legacy play a key role in universities as well as in history workshops and development cooperation.
Our responsibility when it comes to climate change is another common concern. Our cities play a very important role in reducing CO2 emissions. I am delighted that it has been possible to launch a joint project which not only avoids the generation of CO2, but which transforms waste material so that it can be used in agriculture.
We also have promising cooperation in the important fields of training and education. One cannot overestimate how important the dual training system is for fostering innovation, maintaining economic stability and combatting youth unemployment. Hamburgs chamber of crafts supports model training programmes in the hotel and motor vehicle sectors in Tanzania.
Of course, we have not forgotten cultural exchange either: together with a youth theatre group from Dar es Salaam, the Pantheater has essentially got the ball rolling on a German-Tanzanian stage programme.
I would also like to mention the experience of the exciting news features produced by students at the Dar es Salaam university and the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. Projects such as these, to promote upcoming generations of journalists, are very important, particularly in the context of digital information societies.
Whilst the climate, location of the two cities and our cultures may differ in many ways, exchange and discussion are crucial in a globalised world and I am thus very pleased that you, Lord Mayor, are here today.
Our thoughts must not stop at national borders, and our prospects must include other cities and regions. The partnership with Dar es Salaam is a wonderful means to make this aim come true.
Thank you very much!
Es gilt das gesprochene Wort.