Mr Suokas, Ladies and Gentlemen,

thank you very much for the invitation and, Mr Suokas, for your kind words of welcome.

I am sure there´s no doubt: technical research is a key excellence which any industrial country has got to develop and maintain.

So, obviously, any visitor would be most interested in the Technical Research Center of Finland and to see what it has to offer.

Knowing Finland´s position and achievements in the world of high tech and industrial modernization, supported by its well-renowned educational system, I am most interested.

I understand VTT is the biggest multi-technological applied research organization in Northern Europe, providing high-end technology solutions and innovation services.

To combine different technologies, to create new solutions rather than new problems and a substantial range of world class innovative products, hauled by an international scientific and technology network, thus creating business intelligence and value added to its stakeholders that seems to be just what is needed. For the sake of the stakeholders and, of course, the working people.
Hamburg, the city I represent, has almost 1.8 million inhabitants and the metropolitan region amounts to more than five million, equaling one per cent of all European Union citizens. 2 ½ million urban and suburban professionals, and even some rural ones, have their jobs in the region.

That is a great prospect as well as a challenge. The reason why we are confident as to our economical prospects is: diversification plus new endeavours.

Not unlike Helsinki, we have a port which has been the region’s locomotive of growth for ages, sporting one of the most modern container terminals in the world. The port, however, plays a vital, but not an exclusive role. Hamburg is one of Europe’s biggest industrial cities, too. Trade and commerce have a strong industrial base.
Industry propels technological know-how, and just that is needed to drive innovation and progress, something that every city needs in order to survive in the competition between states and regions. Like President Obama has said, quote:

We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries we must claim its promise.”

Hamburg’s processing industry is state-of-the-art and internationally competitive, and it includes industrial cores such as the aerospace and maritime industries, mechanical engineering, the electrical industry, medical and biotechnologies and the food industry, not forgetting steelworks, aluminium mills and copper smelters.
 
And yet we want no complacency. Hamburg´s Government, the Senate, joining up with people representing our business and academic communities have created the Innovation Alliance Hamburg”. This alliance networks partners in a wide range of fields with a promising future, like: renewable energies, such as fuel cell and wind power technology; e-mobility; materials science; lasers and nanotechnology; marine technology and everything connected with mobility and logistics.

So there, ladies and gentlemen! I have gladly accepted the invitation for talks at VTT not because we have been marking time so far, but in order to look and learn. Finland and Germany, Helsinki and Hamburg are partners within Europe; competitors maybe, in some fields, but friends who know about one another´s strong points. I am looking forward to the next couple of hours.

 

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