The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry organized a Business Delegation to Germany from 24th to 28th June 2019. The Delegation was led by Mr. Indrajit Sen, President, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The cities visited were:

• Stuttgart
• Uhingen
• Dusseldorf/Cologne
• Berlin

The Delegation was comprised of :

Leader of the Delegation:
• Mr. Indrajit Sen, President, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry & Managing Director, International Combustion (India) Limited

Delegate Members :
• Mr. Abraham Stephanos, Vice President, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry & Managing Director, Tata Steel Processing And Distribution Limited
• Mr. Chiranjib Bhattacharya, Chief Executive Officer, Wizertech Informatics Pvt. Ltd.
• Mr. Debkumar Basu, Director, Zetadel Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
• Mr. Anandagopal Maity, President, Confederation Of Purba & Paschim Medinipur - District Chamber Of Commerce & Industry -DCCI
• Mr. Basudev Chakraborty, Legal Advisor, Confederation Of Purba & Paschim Medinipur - District Chamber Of Commerce & Industry -DCCI
• Mr. Goutam Das, Proprietor, M/S. Das Roto Print
• Ms. Joyoti Chaudhuri, Principal, Delhi Public School Ruby Park, Kolkata
• Ms. Kundavalli Saraogi, Head Mistress - Senior Secondary Delhi Public School Ruby Park, Kolkata

The Chamber Secretariat:
• Mr. Subhodip Ghosh, Director General, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry
• Ms. Angana Guha Roy Chowdhury, Deputy Director, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry
• Ms. Sukanya Bose, Deputy Director, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry
• Mr. Sambit Dasgupta, Chief Manager-Research, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Day 1: 24th June 2019
The Delegation visited BADEN-WURTTEMBERG INTERNATIONAL, Agency for International Economic and Scientific Cooperation on 24th June. The Meeting was attended by Ms. Ines Banhardt, Regional Manager Latin, International Economic Cooperation and Location Marketing, BW International and Ms. Kathrin Seitz, Consultant North America, South and Southeast Asia, Foreign Trade and Services, Chamber of Industry and Commerce, IHK Region Stuttgart.

BW is the third largest State and 15.2% of GDP of Germany is contributed by BW. BW's GDP growth in one of the highest in Germany.

Discussions included possible collaborations on:
• Vocational Training
• Technologies
• Waste Management

It was decided that the above mentioned areas would be focussed to commence the work on collaborations and the other areas of complementarities would be identified going forward.

Visit at the International School of Stuttgart:

Ms. Joyoti Chaudhuri, Principal, Delhi Public School Ruby Park, Kolkata, Ms. Kundavalli Saraogi, Head Mistress - Senior Secondary, Delhi Public School Ruby Park, Kolkata and Ms. Sukanya Bose, Deputy Director, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry visited the International School of Stuttgart at the day one of the delegation. The team met Mr. Matthias Krusch, Director Admission and Enrollment.
Recognized by the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, International School of Stuttgart offers a diverse and exciting experiential and student-centered curriculum to a co-educational, multi- cultural student body of over 800 students from over 45 countries.

Day 2: 25th June 2019

The Delegation was divided in two groups.

The second day of the delegation had a very high intake as the Education Delegation which included Ms. Joyoti Chaudhuri and Ms. Kundavalli Saraogi along Ms. Sukanya Bose of BCC&I visited RWTH Aachen University and Institute for Textile Engineering of RWTH Aachen University.

The day started with great hospitality and a warm welcome provided to the team by the representative of RWTH Aachen University. Dr. Stefan Diederich, Coordinator, Strategic India Activities along with Ms. Kathrin Helsen, Coordinator Visitor Programs gave an outline on the prospective of collaboration with the universities of Bengal. The role of Bengal Chamber for being the mediator between the Accahen University and Indian Universities was also discussed.

The second meeting of the day was at RWTH Aachen University and Institute for Textile Engineering of RWTH Aachen University. Mr. Amool Raina, Programme Manager, Aerospace Engineering and Manufacturing Programme took the team for a visit to the different laboratories and work station showing and explaining the process through which textile manufacturing and fabrication is being processed.

The other Delegate Members visited Allgaier Automotive GmbH in Uhingen. With a total of around 65,000 m2 production and logistics space, the company is the largest location of the Allgaier Automotive division. All activities of the Allgaier Group in this area - from technological innovations to innovative engineering services to sustainable processes - converge here.

Bundled with the services of the plants in eastern Germany, France, Mexico and China, Allgaier Automotive GmbH sets global standards in bodywork and special tool manufacturing, in the production of pressed parts as well as in the development and production of tank systems and other ready-to-install components in the body sector. Here, the Uhinger company offers a wide range of knowledge and decades of experience in the processing of aluminum and deep-drawing steels up to high-strength steel goods.

The engineering of Allgaier Automotive GmbH is also spearheading the recent development of attractive future technologies for the automotive industry. These include the development of battery cases for hybrid and electric vehicles as well as the revolutionary and worldwide patented cold forming process Variotempo.

Day 3: 26th June 2019

The Delegation attended the Annual Meeting of the Members of Indo-German Chamber of Commerce at Rheinterrasse (Dusseldorf).

The programme commenced with Welcome Address by Mr. Sunil Mathur, President, Indo-German Chamber of Commerce. Chief Guest was Mr. Lutz Lienenkamper, Minister of Finance of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). The Session was also graced by Mr. Thomas Geisel, Mayor of the City of Dusseldorf; H.E. Mukta Dutta Tomar, Ambassador of India to Germany; Dr. Jasper Wieck, Deputy Chief of Mission, German Embassy New Delhi. Mr. Bernhard Steinrucke, Director General, Indo-German Chamber of Commerce moderated the programme.

Ms. Vandana Yadav, Managing Director, WBIDC made a presentation on West Bengal. NRW and West Bengal made an MoU during Bengal Global Business Summit in February 2019. Mr. Indrajit Sen, President, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce introduced the Chamber and the purpose of visit by the Delegation - to present West Bengal and explore collaborations to work together with the stakeholders of NRW and other parts of Germany. Mr. Indrajit Sen; along with Mr. Bernhard Steinrucke, requested Dr. Amit Mitra, Hon'ble Minister-in-Charge, Departments of Industry, Commerce & Enterprises, Information Technology and Electronics, Finance and MSME & Textiles, Government of West Bengal for representation of West Bengal in the said programme.

The other Sessions of the programme included 'Permanent Establishments and Projects India' and How to do 'Business in India? Tradition vs Start - Up'.

The Delegation met Ministry of Economics, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy, NRW at their Office. The Delegation was represented by Mr. Indrajit Sen; Mr. Abraham Stephanos; Mr. Chiranjib Bhattacharya; Mr. Debkumar Basu; Ms. Joyoti Chaudhuri; Ms. Kundavalli Saraogi; Mr. Subhodip Ghosh, Ms. Angana Guha Roy Chowdhury and Ms. Sukanya Bose. Ms. Vandana Yadav was also present at the Meeting. Mr. Uwe Kerkmann, Director, International Economic Relations and FDI met the Delegation along Mr. Alexander Hoss, Policy Advisor-Foreign Economic Relations, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitization and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and Mr. Stephanus Lintker, Geophysicist, Head- International Relations, Foreign Affairs, Energie Agentur. NRW was present at the Meeting.

The discussions included:
• Possible connect of Technology Startups from NRW with our Innovation Hub, that is a joint endeavour between The Bengal Chamber and Information Technology & Electronics Department, Government of West Bengal. The possible contours of such a connect can be developed once we hear from the Ministry. The partnership could be in the form of joint workshops on the topic of mutual interest or may be to connect like- minded Startups. We may also look for experts from NRW to address/consult with Small and Medium Enterprises in Bengal which are into activities like Foundry, Forging, Fabrications, Light Engineering, Textiles, etc.
• For Delegation to Bengal, The Bengal Chamber would be delighted to offer its services in organizing all B2B Meetings and also host your Delegation programmes in Kolkata.
• Given the focus on Mining, Allied Activities and Fossil Fuels and Clean Technologies and Energy Efficient Practices, we shall connect exploring possibility of presence of Members at befitting Forums of the Chamber. This may also be on video conference.

Visit to Cologne International School:

The third day of the delegation began with a very interesting and fruitful visit to the Cologne International School. This school has the option of both national board and international board curriculum. Ms Beatrice Eickhoff, Marketing Head, Cologone International school showed us the total infrastructure of the school and had fruitful chat with DPS ruby Park School on Summer Programmes and regarding the other common activities of the school. The visit gave new ideas and also helped in learning new concepts

Day 4: 27th June 2019

Visit to Berlin:

The delegation flew to Berlin to visit some prominent
University and Institute Visit:

The first meeting started with EURASIA. The founder and Managing Director Mr. Andrew Geddes gave a presentation on the activities of Eurasia. This was an extremely fruitful meeting with DPS Ruby Park for their student exchange programmes.

Followed by the Eurasia meeting, the delegates meet Mr. Diego Tellkamp, Director International Business & Operations of IUBH University of Applied Sciences. They shared that their study programmes have a strong practical focus. Internship opportunities are included in all Bachelors programmes.

The third meeting of the day was at SRH University of Applied Science. This is one of the largest and oldest private university of Berlin.

Delegate Members visited GIFA - International Foundry Trade Fair with Technical Forum which was held on 25th to 29th June in Dusseldorf.

There were some individual meetings of the Delegate Members as well.

Day 5: 28th June 2019

Technical University of Berlin:
The last day of the delegation witnessed a Campus tour of the Technical University of Berlin. TU Berlin is one of Germany's highest ranked Universities in Statistics and operations research and in Mathematics. The tour included class visit, library visit, laboratory visit and also interaction with students.

Meeting with Chamber of Commerce Dusseldorf: The Delegation visited Chamber of Commerce Duesseldorf. Meeting was with Ms. Katrin Lange, Executive, International Business Division. She briefed about Chamber of Commerce Dusseldorf which concentrates on the City of Dusseldorf which is 624 sq km. There are 85000 Member Companies. Dusseldorf has Euro 58.2 billion GDP. They have export ratio of 45%. More than 25% of Europe's top 500 companies are at Dusseldorf.

It was discussed that The Bengal Chamber and Dusseldorf Chamber of Commerce would be in contact and explore the areas of complementarity to work together. To begin with,

Innovations would be the key focus. The Chamber will connect the incubates of the Chamber's Incubation Centre with Chamber of Commerce Dusseldorf to offer an enabling eco system.

The concluding Meeting was with Innovations Hub Dusseldorf. Innovations Hub is a joint venture of LAVAlabs Moving Images, Tennagels Media Technology and University of Applied Sciences Dusseldorf. LAVAlabs Moving Images is a creative studio specializing in visual effects, 2D and 3D animation for advertising, feature film and entertainment industries. Tennagels Media Technology makes tailor-made media and event technology, custom LED, trade fair solutions, permanent installations like showrooms and out of home installations and fabrications at workshops. University of Applied Sciences with departments for social sciences and cultural studies, technical sciences, architecture, media, design and business education in Di..sseldorf. It is the second largest University of Applied Sciences in North Rhine-Westphalia, after the Technical University of Cologne.

Innovations Hub is continuously researching on digital innovations which are going to be the constant component of business and life in future.

Demonstrations of unique projects with Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality were made during the tour at the hub.