Mr. Indrajit Sen, President welcomed Dr. Michael Feiner thanking him for accepting the Chamber's invitation for an interactive session with its Managing Committee. He also welcomed Ms. Sabina Pandey, the Regional Director of Indo German Chamber of Commerce. Historically, Germany and German Industry has been very close to India and Indian industry. The Chamber has had a very close tie with the Indo German Chamber of Commerce and is currently working on a project towards a Centre of Excellence which will add great value to the industry, particularly the MSME sector of this region through technology upgradation and skill development and this would enhance the business relationships between the State of West Bengal and this part of the country with Germany.

Dr. Michael Feiner had assumed charge as the Consul General of Germany at Kolkata in August 2017. Dr. Finer, a doctor by training, had served all over the world, particularly in Asia, Africa and North America. One of his areas of interest and passion has been upholding of human rights. He pursued his medical studies at Wurzhurg, Tubingen, Germany and Liverpool, UK. His MD thesis was on child and adolescent psychiatry from the Kennedy School. He is a Master in Public Administration from Harvard University.

Dr. Feiner presented an overview of the German economy. The country's GDP rate grew 1.5 percent in 2018, compared with 2.2 percent in 2017. However, employment figures in Germany currently stood at an all-time high. Export was improving and it was amongst the leading exporting nations in the world. Germany has very strong industrial and manufacturing belts grown over many generations. The country can boast of a highly skilled workforce and it has a tradition in developing skilled workers which had continued over centuries. Germany also has excellent professionals hailing from very respected educational and research institutes and universities. Germany is positioned in the centre and embedded in the globe's largest market of importance in the European Union. When it comes to research and development, Germany has been a pioneer for centuries. The country has a unique network of small and medium sized enterprises employing the majority of the country's workforce and also provided the highest support to the country's GDP. Amongst the SMEs, the so-called 'hidden champions' are found who are world market leaders in their respective niches, producing high quality cutting edge products. According to recent statistics, Germany has over 1300 of such Companies compared to 320 in the US, 220 in Japan and a small number in China. These small family owned enterprises are a big strength of Germany. One would find many of these Companies present here in India.

A high proportion of contribution towards GDP in Germany comes from industrial production {23%}, which was substantially higher than the US, UK or France. Service sector does not contribute much as yet to the country's GDP. The country has remained hugely invested in the old industries, automobiles, machineries and chemicals and still lagged in creative IT and innovative services. He felt that the country's investment structure helped in weathering the economic crisis in 2008 and 2009. However, their Government decision makers and corporates all agree that the country will also have to change and influence the structure of the economy in order to remain tuned to the global environment.

Dr. Feiner also spoke about the demographic challenges that Germany faces. Post the economic and demographic boom in the 50s and 60s, from 70s onwards Germany saw a gradual shrinkage in population growth which did affect its production levels. This posed a challenge to the industry and the economy and enterprises suffered owing to lack of qualified and skilled labours and engineers. Government has passed legislations for precipitating immigration of qualified labour from outside of EU which hopefully should ease the situation. Germany in contrast to the US, Australia and Canada has never been a classical immigration destination. 23.6% of people residing in Germany are from emigrational background, which means either the person himself or one of their parents were born outside Germany. In terms of foreign born residents the figure is 40.5%. For Germany the future lies in utilization of potentials and benefits that migration offers.

Dr. Feiner took a look at the changing world scenario in terms of sizes of world economies in the next 10 years as per published reports. The 10 largest economies would be China, India, USA, Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil, Egypt, Russia, Japan and Germany {in descending order}, which meant that in 11 years, Germany may climb down to no.10. India will reclaim its historical place. However, in a globalised world there are no constants but a robust peaceful economic order will have to be in place. Countries like Germany would have to make adjustments to go through adaptations.

The Consul General felt that the Indo-German trade had developed well over the past years. Last year it crossed the20 trillion Euro mark. Looking at the product range, Germany exports machinery, capital goods, electrical components etc., and India exports, textiles, garments and yarns, chemicals products, food items, leather shoes and cigarettes. He pointed out that while India is the fourth largest trading partner for Germany, India happens to be on the 28th position as far as exports from Germany was concerned and at the 24th position as far as imports from India {0.8% of Germany's total imports}, leaving a lot of space to be explored. There are about 1700 German Companies operating in India, about 1600 Indo- German Federations and over 600 Indo-German joint ventures.

Dr. Feiner mentioned that of all the German economic presence in India, only about 3% was in West Bengal. He said that as far as investment of large German companies was concerned, West Bengal had some difficulties attracting large companies. Smaller companies could of course be accommodated in the State. For the State it would be a challenge to compete with other States in India which already had sizeable German presence as Companies would like to go to places where there is already a cluster along with the infrastructure. In West Bengal there are a number of German Companies who feel they are happy being here with dedicated and committed workforce and once they start functioning they feel comfortable.

Sector-wise, apart from manufacturing, the IT sector could also benefit from German companies using IT services here. Opportunities exist in areas of higher value research and development. When it comes to West Bengal's exports or collaboration with German companies, Dr. Feiner mentioned, the IGCC was here and businesses in this part of the country could also look at the 1700 Germany companies present mostly outside of the State.

Dr. Feiner felt that the Chamber's planned trip to Germany was an excellent option to explore possibilities of co-operation. He suggested the area of Healthcare where he had not seen much co-operation looked promising. The Chamber could look into the prospects of medical technologies as about 1500 companies existed in this sphere. Trade fair was one other entry point towards effective co-operations and Germany is famous for its trade fairs in different sectors. Lastly, Dr. Feiner also felt that the visiting delegation could closely look at the Indian Companies operating at Germany. The number of such companies had been increasing over the years.

Dr. Michael Feiner's talk was followed by an intense round of invigorating question answer session which covered range of interests from members like:
• Water level depletion as a result of global warming, eventually affecting riveriene ports' navigation. If this was an issue in Germany.
• Interest of German Companies in taking part in the BCC&I's annual Mega Trade Fair.
• With increasing trade disputes, would Germany consider India as manufacturing hub?
• The Consul General's views on increasing investments in Bengal from German Companies.
• Brining back Lufthansa services from Kolkata.
• Income disparities and poverty issues in Germany.
• Health Tech Hub in Germany and current collaborations with Indian Companies.
• Robust education system of Germany not attracting as many students from India as the US Universities are.

The Meeting concluded with a formal Vote of Thanks on behalf of the Chamber presented by Mr. Deb A Mukherjee, Senior Vice President.