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01.04.2019 German-Indian Roundtable with economics minister Tiefensee at PIKO on April 1st 2019 

On Monday April 1st 2019, the PIKO Spielwaren GmbH in Sonneberg hosted a wrap up meeting with members of the German-Indian Roundtable (GIRT) in the course of the trip of the Thuringian delegation to India lead by economic minister Wolfgang Tiefensee.

After the delegation trip to India, Dr René F. Wilfer, CEO of the well-known model railway manufacturer PIKO, hosted the meeting and invited the participants to a company tour in Sonneberg. Dr Wilfer himself was very pleased with the organisation and results of the trip. He had the chance to meet new customers in India and establish contacts to development engineers, who are interested in learning the maintenance of model trains and build a maintenance service for PIKO products in India. India is not yet a large market for model railways, but Dr Wilfer has the opinion that it offers great potential, due to the fact that India is a country of railway enthusiasts. As a thank you, every attendant was given a special print PIKO car with the picture of the travel group in front of a temple in Coimbatore, India.

Special H0 car for the India trip 2019

The GIRT has the purpose to enhance the economic relationship between Germany and India. Every two months, German and Indian companies meet in different cities to exchange know-how in a casual atmosphere and to get informed about current topics regarding India. The “GIRT-Radius“ consists of more than 3.000 people interested in India. In Thuringia, GIRT is organized by Thuringia International. GIRT-leader Franziska Döll is happy about the very positive response, GIRT is receiving since its founding in Thuringia in the end of 2016: “Here in Thuringia, companies are very interested in India. The growing market on the subcontinent offers great potential for different products and services. GIRT and Thuringia International in cooperation with our foreign office are there to introduce India to Thuringian companies and help them with their market exploitation. “

The goal of the six-day delegation trip form February 9th to February 16th 2019 was to strengthen the relationship between Thuringia and India.

The participants’ feedback concerning the trip was entirely positive. Economics minister Tiefensee also drew a positive conclusion. “In India, there is a large interest towards Germany and also Thuringia.” Tiefensee said. “’Made in Germany’ has an excellent reputation in India. This is a door opener for the economy in Thuringia” added the minister.

The goal has to be to open up the large Indian market for Thuringian companies in many small steps. “Companies like DeCon or GBneuhaus already lead the way when it comes to success stories in India. I’m optimistic that this year’s delegation trip will lead to a number of concrete results and help the further development of the relationship to India.”

Many of the entrepreneurs travelling with Tiefensee established contacts to Indian companies during the meetings organized by the LEG and already discussed projects with Indian partners that over the medium-term can lead to new cooperations.

With the Indio-Thuringian joint venture of the Fraunhofer-IKTS (Hermsdorf/Dresden) and Mayur REnergy Solutions there is a good chance for new investments in Thuringia itself. „Ultimately, the foreign engagement of the Thuringian economy and the support of the state always has the goal to develop new jobs and to promote new investments in Thuringia. Due to the joint venture of IKTS and Mayur a new and promising investment emerges in an innovative and modern field. I have already assured the full support of the state of Thuringia for this project.“

Additionally, the minister had a number of political talks to members of the Indian government. “In these talks, it was always signalled that there is a high need for investments and modernization into infrastructure in India. Therefore, the country is highly interested in support and investments from Germany“, Tiefensee.said. There is a high demand for know-how and technology from Thuringia. “Especially in key industries like energy and environmental technology as well as electrical and motor vehicle engineering, Thuringia has a lot to offer. For those reasons we would do well to open the Indian market with its 1.3 billion people.“

GIRT-leader Franziska Döll pointed out that GIRT is open to all companies that would like to become active on the Indian market and need support.

Economics minister Wolfgang Tiefensee with the GIRT participants at PIKO in Sonneberg, Oberlind

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