January 19, 2019, Augsburger Allgemeine
Thorsten Freudenberger, Ye Wenzi (Director of the Shenzhen Institute of Educational Sciences), Gunter Czisch, Heiner Scheffold, and a team member from the institute with a plastic Einstein figurine.
Companies from Ulm and the surrounding area are already active in China. A trip and three plastic figurines are expected to open up even more opportunities—including in the field of education.
BY SEBASTIAN MAYR, Augsburger Allgemeine
Peri helped build the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge, a massive transportation project in southern China. Wieland supplies the state-owned air conditioning manufacturer Gree. Beurer maintains an office in Hong Kong and sells electric blankets in China. But small and medium-sized enterprises from the region are also increasingly doing business in China and collaborating with Chinese companies—especially in the free-trade zone around Shenzhen and Zhuhai. The city of Ulm and the districts of Neu-Ulm and Alb-Donau want to provide stronger support for smaller companies in particular. The Ulm/Neu-Ulm Start-up and Innovationszentrum (TFU GmbH), which they sponsor, is to be granted more authority so that TFU can enter into its own contracts in the future. The region also intends to cooperate with Shenzhen and Zhuhai at the local government level.
For four and a half days, Mayor Gunter Czisch and District Administrators Thorsten Freudenberger and Heiner Scheffold were on a delegation trip through the economically strong region along the South China Sea. “The Chinese side certainly took note of the fact that the entire region was represented. That gave us incredible clout,” praised TFU Director Ulrike Hudelmaier. “The fact that the three of us presented ourselves as a region opened doors for us with the political leaders there,” confirmed Heiner Scheffold, District Administrator of the Alb-Donau District. The fact that the delegation undertook the trip was well received by the region’s business community. “We even got the message: it’s high time you did this,” reports Scheffold.
Peri, Wieland, Beurer: Large Companies Cooperate Closely with China
For companies from Ulm and the two neighboring districts, the region in southern China is at once a market, a partner, and a competitor. Ulm’s mayor, Gunter Czisch, describes the free-trade zone as the area where the modernizers of the Middle Kingdom are at the helm. “That’s the hotspot. And it’s a compliment to our region that they’re interested in us,” Czisch enthuses. The Chinese are fascinated by the idea of the “City of Science,” by the innovations of regional companies, by Ulm’s economic history with firms like Telefunken—and by Albert Einstein. The delegation distributed three of the plastic figures of the famous physicist—which conceptual artist Ottmar Hörl had installed on Münsterplatz last summer—to their counterparts in China.
The goal is to expand contacts between local governments here and there. Czisch, Freudenberger, and Scheffold hope this will enable them to support companies from the Ulm Innovation Region in their projects in China. To ensure that these contacts grow closer and remain strong, further trips are planned. This is because, in Chinese political and economic culture, it is important for top executives to make personal appearances—a letter or a phone call is not enough. The delegation from China brought this insight back with them.
Partnership between Ulm, Neu-Ulm, Zhuhai, and Shenzhen
Another insight is this: Although there are 16,000 electric buses in Shenzhen, “Technically, I didn’t see anything new there,” says Czisch. “They just get innovations onto the road faster.” For example, large and small battery-powered electric buses. The three politicians want to advocate for faster implementation of decisions and faster completion of the approval process. “We need more entrepreneurial courage,” urges Neu-Ulm District Administrator Thorsten Freudenberger.
An example from the Neu-Ulm district shows that the partnership is not limited to the purely economic sphere. The Chinese Academy of Sciences Elementary School has agreed to collaborate with the “Neu-Ulm District Education Region” initiative. The initial focus will be on teacher exchanges. The exchange program centers on modern educational concepts. During their trip, the delegation from the region gained initial impressions of Chinese educational approaches: on the one hand, instruction in small groups; on the other, a significantly stricter understanding of discipline than is customary here. “That’s where cultures clash,” reports the district administrator.
In the Neu-Ulm district, the Engelhart Elementary School in Senden is leading the way in this partnership. “As soon as it proves successful, we want to roll it out to Ulm and the Alb-Donau district,” Freudenberger announced.
