Sibexpocntre OJSC and Germany: new partners – new perspectives

Germany can rightly be considered as one of the most advanced countries, where the most modern technologies, knowledge and specialists in various fields of economics and science are concentrated.

That is why Sibexpocentre OJSC for many years has been paying such close attention to establishing business and partnership relations with state and commercial structures of Federal Republic of Germany and attracting German business experience to the Irkutsk region. Last spring at the “Energy Efficiency. Housing and Public Utilities” exhibition Irkutsk scientists have successfully worked with a delegation of scientists from leading technical universities of Germany, The delegation was organized by the German House of Science and Innovations — now it is a regular business partner of Sibexpocentre.

Annually Sibexpocentre holds exhibitions on all the most important sectors of the region’s economy: transport, construction, energy, tourism, forestry, medicine and so on. Such wide range of different areas is interesting to representatives of Germany, who actively share not only their knowledge, but also useful contacts. These contacts contribute to the further strengthening of business relations between the Irkutsk region and Germany.

In summer 2018, at the initiative of Sibexpocentre OJSC cooperation was started with the Russian-German Chamber of Commerce (RGVP) which was already officially confirmed at the beginning of 2019 when Sibexpocentre OJSC joined the RGVP. Such a significant step opens up new prospects for cooperation between the Irkutsk Region and the Federal Republic of Germany, possibility of attracting even more modern European technologies to the region.

At the invitation of Sibexpocentre, the Russian-German Chamber of Commerce will bring to Irkutsk more than 15 companies dealing with collecting, sorting, processing and recycling of waste, air purification at large industrial enterprises. “В2В” meetings, round tables will be held on May, 21.

One of the most important partners of Sibexpocentre is The Germany Embassy in Moscow. Good partnership has been established between Director —General of Sibexpocentre OJSC Mr. Shapovalov and the first secretary of The Germany Embassy in Moscow Mr. Huber. , who oversees relations between forest complexes of Russia and Germany.

During the negotiations on SibWoodExpo exhibition In July last year, Mr. Huber proposed to hold a meeting at the Ministry of Forestry of the Irkutsk Region with representatives of the government and business of the forest industry. Due to the fact that Irkutsk region is one of the most “forest regions” of Russia, and Germany has knowledges and technologies in the forest sector, Mr. Huber has interests in this theme. So if we combine these 2 components, we will get beneficial cooperation between the specialists of the two countries.

Sibexpocentre did a lot of preparatory work on the organization of the visit and the meeting of Mr. Huber with representatives of the Ministry and business of the forest industry for more than half of year.

Mr. Huber and leading timber industry enterprises participated in meeting of the Council for the Development of the Forest Industry of the Irkutsk Region, which was chaired by the Deputy Minister of Forest Complex Nikolay Kovalchuk. Tomas Huber made a very informative presentation about the forest management in Germany and told about reforestation projects that are implemented more than 400 years. Particular attention was paid to the cooperation of federal and local authorities with private owners of forest land especially on reforestation, monitoring of forest fires. He also told about the role of the government measures in the organization, training and equipping of voluntary fire brigades in areas located far from big cities. Presentation quickly turned into an active discussion between specialists and took an hour longer than originally planned. Phrase of Mr. Kovalchuk, “a real forestry professional finally came to us!” means that specialists of Germany and Irkutsk speak the same language now.

‘SibWoodExpo 2019’ exhibition was also discussed at the meeting. Mr. Huber supports the idea of holding ‘SibWoodExpo 2019’ exhibition in Bratsk, where the largest number of forest companies is located. Mr. Huber also suggested government and businessmen to participate LIGNA exhibition in Hannover. At LIGNA exhibition they will be able to learn more about new technologies that are used by professionals from Germany, Austria, Finland, Italy, establish new contacts, invite companies, dealing with deep processing of wood to Irkutsk region, and hold negotiations on possible supplies of equipment to our region.

Mr. Hans-Jürgen Wittmann from Germany Trade& Invest, who has interest to forest complex of Irkutsk region, also participated the meeting. He expressed willingness to attract German investment companies to our region, to have them get acquainted with our local investment projects. Germany Trade& Invest is ready to consider investment projects of the Irkutsk region not only in the forest sector.

To sum up, it’s safe to say that meeting between the Government, businessmen of forest industry of the Irkutsk region and official representatives of Germany was held in a very positive way. As both sides noted, this dialog became a first step to joint work, which will be held on September in city of Bratsk.

Guests from Germany spent 4 days in Irkutsk. During this time, they managed not only to attend a government meeting, but also to learn a little about the culture of the city of Irkutsk, visit Lake Baikal and try traditional dishes. All these days SibWoodExpo 2019 and its opportunities for specialists of forest industry were being discussed. We are actively preparing to ‘Youth day’, which will be held in the framework of the exhibition. During the ‘Youth day’ young scientists and specialists from leading forest and woodworking universities and expert centers of Germany, namely: Institute of Forest Technologies in Dresden, Institute of Applied Sciences and Art in Hildesheim, University of Applied Sciences in Rosenheim, Dresden Technical University, Institute of Forestry in Rottenburg will present their projects and developments in Bratsk.

Administration of Bratsk State University is interested in attracting scientists and specialists from the above-mentioned universities to the exhibition in order to expand international cooperation, intensify research in the forest sector of our region aimed at reforestation and effective forest management.

Sibexpocentre OJSC together with the Embassy of Germany represented by Mr. Thomas Huber and the Ministry of Forestry of the Irkutsk region promote negotiations between universities and include events for young scientists.

In summary, cooperation of Sibexpocentre OJSC with various state, public and commercial structures of the Federal Republic of Germany helps to open up new prospects for the development of many sectors of the economy of our region.

As Director-General of Sibexpocentre OJSC Mr. Shapovalov said: