Dear Mr Yang,
Dear Ms Spahl,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Welcome to the third „Shanghai-Hamburg Business Forum“.
Hamburg and Shanghai are cities traditionally known for their trade and ports and they have many things in common.
For over 30 years we are connected by a city partnership which has grown into a strong network with many successful cooperations.
Apart from the cooperation in the areas of education, science and research, a special interest of our partnership is to strengthen the German-Chinese trade and business relationships.
The port of Hamburg is the gateway for China to Europe. One in three containers that passes through Hamburg is either from China or on its way to China.
Over 600 companies in Hamburg do business with China. About 150 of them have offices here — most of them, of course, in Shanghai.
And if we look from the other side, there are over 500 Chinese companies with offices in Hamburg. Important sectors are aviation, life sciences, renewable energy and industry 4.0.
A basic building block of our partnership are conferences like this one, the „China Time“ in Hamburg or the „Hamburg Summit: China meets Europe”.
These events give us the opportunity to meet in person and to find new contacts. They are platforms to stay in touch, to think about new cooperations and to develop new future ventures.
Today’s forum will focus on two main topics, which are equally important for Shanghai and Hamburg as modern metropolitan cities.
We will be talking about mobility concepts for the future and the potential of artificial intelligence for our society, economy and industry. In both fields, Hamburg can be proud to call itself a leading site in Germany.
Hamburg is a capital of e-mobility,
- with the largest network of e-charging stations in all of Germany,
- with a metropolitan train system that is powered by 100% renewable energy
- and with a bus fleet, with an increasing number of zero emission vehicles.
For the 2021 ITS World Congress in Hamburg, we are involved in over 60 projects in which next-generation mobility solutions are integrated and tested on our streets – in real traffic.
We created a test track for self-driving cars in the centre of the city. Volkswagen operates several E-vehicles there, in fully automated driving mode.
The test track is also used by the Chinese company Neusoft which is working on a new transmission standard that allows continuous communication between vehicles and traffic lights. Fully implemented, this could dramatically improve the steering of city traffic flow.
In the field of artificial intelligence, we’ve got an association of universities, transport providers, digital companies and government authorities working together to bring artificial intelligence into traffic management.
We are planning an AI competence centre for medical applications in Northern Germany. The aim is to facilitate the transfer of new technologies from research and theory to business and practice.
Promoting artificial intelligence is part of our digital strategy, which brings together and connects private, economic, scientific and governmental entities in our city.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Hamburg delegation is looking forward to today’s forum, about what our partner city Shanghai is planning and where mobility and AI projects are already being realised. I’m sure that both sectors have enormous potential for future partnerships.
If you are interested in getting in touch, we have our „Hamburg Liaison Office“ in Shanghai with over 30 years of experience in bringing together our two cities in successful cooperations.
I wish all of you an interesting time at the „Shanghai-Hamburg Business Forum“ with a lot of ideas for new projects of cooperation.
Thank you very much!