On 10 April, the foreign trade day 2018 of Saxony-Anhalt took place in Magdeburg. The foreign trade day aims to bring together the experiences and know-how of experts from various fields and provide insights into economic policy and developments in the global economy. Around 170 experts from industry, economic organisations and associations as well as politicans came togehter to discuss challenges and opportunities of foreign trade. The focus was on the question of how stable partnerships can help to achieve common goals in international markets?
The event was opened by Prof. Dr. Armin Willingmann, the Minister of economy, science and digitalisation Saxony-Anhalt and Mr. Twan Beurskens, Minister of economy from the Province Limburg. Both highlighted the importance of strong partnerships in times of globalisation, factors of uncertainty as well as political conflicts. In order to strenghten the political and economic position of the European Union, strong partnerships are essential. European cooperation Projects, such as the S3Chem project, are important for the intensification and the creation of strong partnerships around Europe.
In the course of the conference three panel discussions have been organised and representatives from the partner regions Limburg, Mazovia and Saxony-Anhalt actively provided input into the discussion about international partnerships and their contribution to a stabilisation of international relations and risk management. They also exchanged experiences with existing and past interregional partnerships and discussed potentials for cooperation in the future.
In the framework of the S3Chem Project a joint collaboration between the Province of Limburg and Saxony-Anhalt was successfully initiated. For that reason, partners from both regions met at the Fraunhofer Institute of Microstructure of Materials and Systems Saxony-Anhalt(IMWS) on 09 April in order to discuss further cooperation between the IMWS and the Brightlands Materials Center Limburg on the project "Open industrial minds for polymer based 3D printing technologies".
As Limburg and Saxony-Anhalt have a strong chemical and plastics industry with a great impact on the regional development, both partner regions have a strong interest in promoting European cooperation between companies, universities and research institutes in their ambitions for innovative activities. The joint collaboration between Limburg and Saxony-Anhalt has the aim to intensify existing cooperation and to establish new cooperation projects. The partners of the cooperation initiative agreed to develop and implement new project ideas at European level using ERDF funding from both regions to exchange knowledge and new ideas focusing on regional development, cooperation and greater involvement of especially small and medium-sized companies, research institutes and economic development agencies and public authorities.
