Interview with Ursula Müller, Deputy Director-General External Economic Promotion and Development Policy
Ms Müller, the government and industry collaborate abroad to boost trade and investment. What is diplomacy’s most important task in this cooperation?
We believe our top-priority task is to back up German companies’ business operations abroad. Their success on the world markets demonstrates the strength and innovation of the German economy. One in four jobs in Germany depend on exports of goods and services. One of the most important tasks of Germany’s diplomatic missions must therefore be to support German companies abroad whenever we are asked to do so. Because nothing can beat local contacts.
What kind of support do you give?
The diplomatic missions have access to the important contacts and decision makers in the respective countries; they can bring potential business partners together and build bridges. To this extent, they are an extension of Germany’s promotion of foreign trade. And it is only logical that this is a top priority both in the Federal Foreign Office and in our 226 missions abroad. The promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises in particular is a political objective of Federal Foreign Minister Dr. Guido Westerwelle.
How is German foreign trade organized internationally?
The Federal Ministry of Economics is in charge of the government’s promotion of foreign trade. This also applies to funding the instruments we use in promoting foreign trade: e.g. collecting information on industries and markets worldwide by the government-owned company Germany Trade and Invest (GTaI) and by the Chambers of Industry and Commerce Abroad (AHKs), advising companies on entering foreign markets, safeguarding their interests in the host countries, and much more.
Can you give us a specific example of the government and industry successfully implementing a German project abroad?
Certainly. In mid-July, the State Secretary of the Federal Foreign Office accompanied a delegation to Nigeria. We have had an energy partnership with Nigeria since 2007. The country is Africa’s “resource-giant”, but suffers from a lack of electricity to develop its industry. Although Germany is Europe’s biggest economy, it lacks natural resources. The Federal Foreign Office took a very practical approach to this situation and brought the interests and potential of the two energy sectors together. This trip resulted in interesting contracts for German companies which will help Nigeria retrofit power stations, build up distribution networks and modernize its power-supply system. Both sides have therefore benefited.
Do you also give support in the opposite direction, i.e. to foreign companies?
Of course. The AHKs and GTaI also advise companies that want to come to Germany. Embassies and consulates do the same. And if, at the end of the day, a business executive needs a visa to travel to Germany, the diplomatic mission becomes active here, too.
THE GERMAN CHAMBER NETWORK
The German Chambers of Commerce Abroad (AHKs) are one of the three pillars of foreign trade promotion – together with the foreign diplomatic missions and the company Germany Trade and Invest (GTaI). This German Chamber Network (also known as DEinternational) is represented in the most important export markets of the world – with 120 locations in 80 countries (see chart). Each AHK is organized as a voluntary association of companies from Germany and the partner country where the AHK is based. Their main task is to promote the interests of industry in the two countries and encourage business collaborations by taking into account the market interests of German companies in the host country, while simultaneously functioning as a service provider for local businesses. The AHKs have 40,000 member companies worldwide; two thirds of these are based abroad, one third in Germany.
www.ahk.de
MEETINGS BETWEEN INDUSTRY AND POLITICS AT THE FEDERAL FOREIGN OFFICE IN BERLIN
The subjects include alternative fuels and transmission techniques, Germany as a logistics base, affordable electricity from environment-friendly power plants and medical engineering for the African market: “Business meets Diplomats” (see picture on the right), a series of events organized in Berlin by the Federal Foreign Office since 2007, regularly brings together experts from the fields of politics, industry and science from Germany and abroad to discuss current issues at the interface between politics and business. The Foreign Trade Forum, held at the Foreign Office during the Annual Conference of Ambassadors, also encourages networking between industry and the diplomatic service.
www.diplo.de/world-economy
AUMA – ASSOCIATION OF THE GERMAN TRADE-FAIR INDUSTRY
International trade fairs are an attractive forum for industry. Two-fifths of German industrial corporations regularly exhibit abroad. German industry’s international trade-fair activities are coordinated by the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry, or AUMA for short. Its aim is to strengthen German trade fairs in Germany and abroad. Each year, AUMA supports the trade-fair work of about 230 export platforms backed by the Federal Government. The event organizers in AUMA stage over 200 trade fairs in the most important growth markets worldwide.
www.auma.de
