Grußwort zum Interactive Seminar Connected Cities” (englisch)

Dear Ms and Mr van den Ende,
Your Majesties, Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen,

With digitization, we are experiencing a break with familiar technologies that will bring considerable changes to all sectors of our communal life. That does not only apply to communications and industry; more and more it will affect the public realms in which we live and move.

Cities, in particular, are faced with the challenge of managing these changes in such a way that they become more pleasant to live in and more attractive to business and industry.

That is why, in January, Hamburg resolved to introduce a Digital City strategy.

We intend to exploit the potential of digital technologies in order to enhance the quality of our services and make more efficient use of resources. That applies to such widely differing fields as transport and our schools and universities, the services of our public authorities and the offers of cultural institutions.

We want Hamburg to offer scope for technical innovation. We must constantly ask ourselves how we can do things better, even those things we do well already. One example is the port, for centuries one of the biggest and most important in the world. Just as we coped with the disruption caused by the advent of container shipping, so we are now using digital techniques in the Smart Port logistics system to ensure that the harbour remains the vigorously beating heart of business and industry in the centre of our city.
 
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Digitization permits direct connections. Processes that were once separate merge into one; intermediate structures become superfluous; even machines communicate with one another.

The question as to how we, as a society, can make the most of this is one of the most important issues of our time. I am glad this discussion is taking place in Hamburg. And I am extremely pleased that the royal couple will take part in it here today.

I wish us all good and fruitful discussions.
Thank you.

Es gilt das gesprochene Wort.