Economic cooperation strengthens partners
The “Partnering in Business with Germany” programme promotes cooperation between companies from Germany and the partner countries – to the benefit of both sides.
Their common interest: water management. The difference between them: 5,000 kilometres. Despite this huge distance, the family-owned companies DIVE Turbinen based in Amorbach, Bavaria, and KelesHydroStroy in Kazakhstan have been working together for years. Their collaboration was initiated through the global programme “Partnering in Business with Germany”, which is run by the GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH) on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. For years now, the project has forged links between international and German companies. The aim: to advance development based on economic cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises in developing and emerging countries and in Germany. The project has resulted in more than 17,000 people visiting German companies, with more than 1,400 German companies taking part every year.
Benefiting the partners – and the region as a whole
“The programme helped me find the right partners in Germany,” says Kyzzhibek Ryszhanova of KelesHydroStroy in an interview with the GIZ publication akzente. Her company plans hydropower plants and was in search of the best turbine technology for a new project in 2017. The encounter was pivotal for DIVE, too: “This partnership proved to be a turning point. We’ve traditionally built machines up to one megawatt, but this project led us to develop machines with a significantly higher output,” says Managing Director Martina Römmelt-Fella. The impact of the project goes beyond cooperation, however. Kyzzhibek Ryszhanova: “This is about more than just water turbines and power capacity,” she says, adding that the collaboration was helping the entire region to achieve its climate targets.
Cooperation in the construction industry in Africa
The collaboration between the companies Loesche and El-Fateh is another example of how entire regions can benefit from the programme. The German mechanical engineering company and the Egyptian company specialising in steel structures collaborated to build cement plants in Liberia and Rwanda. Ahmed Fathelbab, Managing Director of El-Fateh: “This programme has opened a lot of doors for us. We’ve now run five projects with German companies – both in Germany and together with German companies in Africa.”
