Mr Bakshi,
Ambassador,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my great pleasure to have the privilege of speaking to you, the representatives of a major business association. I am happy to have been given the opportunity to present some arguments in favour of even closer cooperation between companies in India and Hamburg.
Here, in this wonderful city of New Delhi which is of course so much bigger than Hamburg! Besides being one of the most important centres of modern India, it also ranks among the ten most popular cities in the the world. And rightly so.
I have already greatly enjoyed discovering the city and its special architectural and cultural features for myself. At least a few of them, because time has been very short so far.
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (F.C.C.I), based here in New Delhi, is by no means unknown to the business and political communities in Hamburg. Founded in 1927, the Federation now has ten regional chambers and a total of 250,000 member companies. We find these figures very impressive.
One of your major objectives is to promote foreign trade, and I would go so far as to say: Hamburg is a prime spot on the globe for that purpose.
But I also know that the F.I.C.C.I is about far more than just economic facts and figures. The history of your federation, Mr Bakshi, is intimately tied up with Indias fight for independence. I have been told that the federation was founded at the personal recommendation of Mahatma Gandhi himself.
In Hamburg, we have established a special relation with your great country. For our nation, the Republic of India was the first friendly state in the Far East, because, after its western allies, India was the first country to grant the young Federal Republic of Germany diplomatic recognition.
And needless to say the outstanding personality of Mahatma Gandhi made a deep and lasting impression on many Germans and shaped their picture of India.
Today this modest man is seen as the epitome of aspiration paired with the absolute will to aspire to and reach goals without violence. Satyagráha means, "insisting on the truth. Truth not in the sense of being right, but rather: non compliance with unjust laws and rules, non co-operation with oppressors.
Hamburg is hosting a very active Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Initiative. About two weeks ago the initiative joined the city of Hamburg in celebrating Gandhi´s birthday. That coincided with the International Day of Non-violence and Peace. The Mahatma Gandhi Bridge is a link to part of our new HafenCity neighbourhood; a place which brings together the seafaring tradition and the lifestyle of an upwardly mobile major city and its inhabitants.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I was personally very happy that India was the partner country to Hamburgs annual port anniversary this year. The port anniversary 2012 was selected by India as the starting event for the year of India in Germany 2012/13. The Indian government was represented in Hamburg by minister of commerce, Anand Sharma.
India and Germany, and this is my unshakable opinion, are determined to expand and extend their cultural as well as economic and trade relations. That will be mutually beneficial.
India, that large, populous, multi-ethnic country, an important member of BRICS, has long since been anchored in our minds as an economic power, especially as the land of high tech. Everyone in Hamburg knows Arcelor Mittal. And Suzlon Energy. After all, that company has helped to make it possible for Hamburg to earn its reputation as the capital of wind energy in Germany.
I would also make the following claim: there is no better place in Germany where the dynamics of the business relations between our two countries are more apparent than in Hamburg.
Our city and its port, Indias gateway to the European Union, is responsible for 30 per cent of all container traffic that involves India and the main North European ports.
No less than two thirds of the entire exports of Indian tea and Indian carpets, two of your countrys famous products, pass into Europe through Hamburg. The Indian tea´s much loved and characteristic aromas have for many, many years been one of the trademarks of Hamburgs historic warehouse complex, the Speicherstadt.
But neither side has used the history of our trade relations as an excuse to sit back and relax.
In the first ten years of this century, the foreign trade volume between Hamburg and India has more than tripled. There are 30 Indian companies in Hamburg, and 570 Hamburg companies maintain business relationships with India.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Hamburg is an international trading metropolis; it is the business hub of trade in north-eastern Europe, and the European centre of trade with what we think of as the Far East.
Our port is the regions powerful locomotive of growth. Without the port the present economic significance of the whole metropolitan region would be inconceivable. Hamburg has the most modern container terminal in the world.
The port plays an important, but not exclusive, role in making Hamburg Germanys biggest and most important centre of trade - and competitive in European and global markets.
After all, so many different organizations in the city have something to do with foreign trade. About 5,000 in fact, and a good 2,500 of them are traditional importers and exporters. If we then add in the trade representatives of international businesses, service providers and industrial companies, around 20,000 firms in Hamburg have business relations with other countries.
And to complete this portrait of a foreign trade centre, a good 3,500 companies from overseas have a subsidiary in Hamburg. Germanys most authoritative Chamber of Commerce for foreign trade issues is the one in Hamburg.
The port is the commercial heart of metropolitan Hamburg and is often called the Gateway to the World, not only for Germany, but also for the Czech Republic or Poland - it is indeed the port for all of Central Europe.
It links German and European companies with their global markets. We shall continue to expand the port; upgrading the navigation channel of the Elbe will preserve all the ports functions, by ensuring river access to Hamburg, even for the latest generation of container ships.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
our economy is diversified. For Hamburg is an important industrial location, too; in fact, its one of Europes biggest industrial cities. So trade and commerce have a strong industrial base. That is one reason why we view the coming years with confidence.
Hamburg s cluster policy comprises the fields of logistics, aviation and renewable energy sources, life sciences, the maritime economy, the creative industries and healthcare. We hold a strong position in all of these. The aeronautical industry, for example, employs nearly 40,000 people in the metropolitan region.
Hamburg is the biggest German centre of civil aviation and ranks number three in the world.
The aviation industry is one of the engines driving the global economy. The aviation boom especially benefits Hamburg as home to many firms in the sector. The aeronautical industry pioneers innovative materials and processes. It therefore plays a key role in guaranteeing the future of high-tech in Germany.
Besides the big three - Airbus Deutschland, Lufthansa Technik and Hamburg Airport - over 300 small and medium enterprises contribute to the reservoir of knowledge and skills. All together, the suppliers to the aeronautical industry based in Hamburg plus the neighbouring parts of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein employ 8,800 people. The Aviation Cluster in the Metropolitan Region of Hamburg is a partnering network that links aeronautical firms, associations, universities and government departments.
The energy industry, which I have just mentioned, is a major issue. As you know, Germany decided last year to abandon the use of nuclear power. In Hamburg, as elsewhere, the question of how to make better use of renewable energy sources is becoming increasingly important. This has considerable environmental and economic significance for us, and there I see interesting possibilities of closer cooperation with Indian companies.
You, Mr Bakshi, as chairman and managing director of RBB Energy Ltd, are very much an expert in this field. For the past 25 years your company has been making wind turbines and other equipment. You now offer all the tools needed to harvest wind energy - from choosing a site, to planning, construction of the wind farm to marketing the power. I have already had the pleasure of being able to exchange ideas with you about this.
Incidentally, most headquarters of wind energy companies in Germany and the European Union, maybe even worldwide are located in Hamburg.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The wheels of progress do not stand still for long, neither in power generation nor elsewhere. Hamburg keeps an eye on all kinds of developments.
Some time ago the Senate joined with people representing Hamburgs business and academic communities to create the Innovation Alliance Hamburg. The Alliance networks partners in a wide range of fields with future promise. These include: renewable energies, such as fuel cell and wind power technology; materials science; lasers and nanotechnology; marine technology and everything connected with mobility and logistics.
And so innovation is brought to conventional industries - and that is what we need, because Hamburg is in one of Europes most economically dynamic regions.
More than five million Europeans now live in our metropolitan region; that is a good one per cent of all EU citizens. 2.5 million people in employment add value to the local economy. Our gross domestic product is 162 billion euros.
A dynamic, new economic region is now developing along what we call the Birds Flight Path - the straight line that crosses the Fehmarn Belt between Germany and Denmark. A tunnel from Germany to Denmark will open up Scandinavia and provide a much quicker link than by boat. A map showing the metropolitan areas of Hamburg, Berlin, and the locations of Copenhagen and Malmö, reveals one contiguous region with vast opportunities for growth and jobs.
Hamburg is a logistics centre. Our city stands on the intersection between the booming regions of Eastern Asia and North, Central and Eastern Europe. Around 11,000 logistics companies are based here, including a large number of global players. The latest figures show that the logistics industry provides some 330,000 jobs in the metropolitan region.
As a growing industrial city engaged in global trade through its port, it must be in our own best interests to make sure we expand Hamburgs role as a leading provider of logistics services. The objective of our Logistics Initiative is to steadily improve conditions that will allow the logistics industry to grow in the city.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Since the early 1990s we have witnessed the emergence of new industries that continue to grow at a tremendous pace - the internet economy and new media. This sector is also booming here in India! It was possible - in your country as in ours - to take a very well developed media culture as the starting point.
Content is an important raw material, and the common denominator of old and new media offerings. The broad-based economy of our city also gives new service providers access to a large pool of customers.
The government of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg decided early on - in 1997 - to help develop this sector. An exemplary cluster has grown from the initiative called Hamburg@work, which now comprises more than 600 companies and involves 2,500 people from the IT, telecommunications and new media communities.
Last autumn saw the opening of the Faculty for Design, Media and Information at the University of Applied Sciences, completing the Arts and Media Campus of Hamburg, at the centre of which is the Hamburg Media School. One policy focus will be to ensure that these industries can continue to grow and develop in Hamburg.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We shall be hearing and seeing two corporate success stories and will then have the welcome opportunity to talk about cooperation between India and Hamburg. I have several questions on my mind and have long wanted to put some of them to Mr Bakshi.
Before that, however, I would like to touch briefly, if I may, on a topic that I wish to talk about in greater detail at this afternoons Asian Forum on Global Governance. Hamburg is a committed fellow traveller along the path to European unity and an active participant in the project. And the euro is our currency.
To date, it is one of the biggest milestones on the path to European integration and - despite what current headlines suggest - it is a success.
Germany and - as far as our more limited means allow - Hamburg will play their part in preventing the eurozone from disintegrating. And we wont abandon countries that are in difficulties. That is not an act of generosity. It is solidarity to which there is no alternative, serving the euro family and, by extension, the world economy too.
But let us now move on to some practical examples of innovative business models.
Thank you for your attention.
The spoken word applies.