“Europe and the Hanseatic League – two words for one idea”, said
Günter Verheugen Vice-President of the European Commission
responsible for Enterprise and Industry in his opening words at the
Economic Summit held on May 11th, 2007 in Lippstadt.
The aim of the historical Hanse had been the improvement of
economic relationships and securing trade among the members. These
also were the main intentions of the EEC fifty years ago and still
are central to the EU today.
The focus of the Economic Summit, which was held at an
International Hanse Convention for the first time, was: “Improved
networking among the member cities as a carrier for economic growth
against the background of globalization.”
The mayors of Lippstadt, Christof Sommer and Lübeck, Bernd Saxe
welcomed approx. 400 guests and 5 high level speakers who presented
different views of the subject according to their respective
backgrounds.
Retrospection to the Economic Summit in Lippstadt/Germany
11th of May 2007
Günter Verheugen, EU
Günter Verheugen, Dr. Jürgen Behrend, Manfred Maus
Dr. Jürgen Behrend, Chairman and President of the Hella KGaA Hueck
& Co stressed the necessity to install company networks and
partnerships all over the world. He introduced the impressive
number of joint ventures and cooperations in which Hella plays a
leading role and said this was the way to secure the future of a
medium-sized enterprise in globalized markets.
In his speech Manfred Maus, founder of the OBI- home improvement
store chain, gave a number of examples for the importance of
cultural and social aspects in the various countries when one tries
to set up a new business. Putting the respective customer – the
human being into the centre of planning and action is a
prerequisite to a successful international network.
The Minister for Innovation of North Rhine Westphalia, Andreas
Pinkwart claimed that a first class education system including
schools, universities and permanent training on the job is the key
to a successful future for the western industrial nations,
especially Germany.
Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart
Andreas Becker, WestLB introduced the supporting networks the banks
have built to help small and medium sized enterprises to install
international businesses.
After the speeches all the lecturers where invited to discuss the
chances and risks of globalization and the comparative advantages
the Hanseatic network offers its member cities. The discussion was
very lively, sometimes even emotional, because at first site
globalization many times means that jobs and positions are being
relocated abroad. On the other hand many western countries do take
advantage of the globalization by making very good revenues by
selling the (in eastern countries) cheaply produced products to the
western world. Dr. Behrend emphasized that the global economic
competition by itself was good and necessary but it could only be
fair when production/work-, safety - and social standards were
adjusted to modern levels all over the world.
Answering the question of the presenter, Martin Krigar (left),
editor-in-chief of the local newspaper Westfälischer Anzeiger, it
was agreed that the hanseatic network should improve the economic
cooperation of the enterprises in the member cities and thus could
be profitable for everybody.
This was the perfect lead to the introduction of the online
networking database that had been set up by the Business
Development Agency (BDA) in Lippstadt and is now ready to support
any request for economic partnership among the hanseatic cities.
The database is linked at pages about the Economic Summit of www.hansetag-lippstadt.com and www.hanse.org.
Companies as different as Goodrich Lighting Systems, BHTC, the chocolate factory Peters, the orchid laboratory Hark, the automotive supplier Hella, the specialist for instant drinks and other food ingredients SATRO and steel manufacturer Rothe Erde welcomed more than 150 guests and gave them interesting tours of their respective production sites.
In the evening there was a final Get Together at the local Golf court. Due to the bad weather the guests couldn’t fully enjoy the view of the wonderful scenery here but were able to get a good taste of Westphalian cooking and beer.
