6/3/2009

Bavaria’s Minister of Economic Affairs, Martin Zeil, visits California / 10th anniversary of the “State of Bavaria United States Office for Economic Development – West Coast Division” in California

MUNICH / SAN FRANCISCO The Bavarian Minister of Economic Affairs, Martin Zeil, left today for a three-day trip to California accompanied by a delegation of highly eminent experts, including Professor Domdey, Professor Gerhäuser, Professor Nassauer and Professor Fricke. “The aim of my trip to California is to even further intensify the already close relations between Bavarian and California. Especially in the current global economic crisis, strong transatlantic cooperation makes a good basis for overcoming the enormous challenges facing us in the future”, Minister Zeil said.

During his trip, Economics Minister Zeil will have talks with top-ranking representatives of the Californian government – including Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi.

Another highlight of the trip will be an event at Stanford University on “Sustainable use and generation of energy”. “Protecting the global climate must be made a top priority. It is essential for us to save energy with sustainable, alternative and more efficient energy technologies and ecology-minded use of energy. Only in this way can we make a major contribution towards fighting the continuing advance of global warming. Like California, Bavaria and its companies reacted very quickly and have proved successful in seeking alternative solutions. Today they are considered to be trailblazers”, commented Economics Minister Zeil.

The trip will also include the celebrations for the 10th anniversary of the ‘State of Bavaria United States Office for Economic Development – West Coast Division’ in California and visits to Google and Intel, both of which are doing very well in Bavaria, as well as to the BMW Research Center in Palo Alto. In the fall of 2007 Google set up its first research & development center in Germany at Munich. It was only last March that Intel opened its new research center, the “Intel Lab Europe”, in Feldkirchen near Munich.

Bavaria and the USA have a long tradition of close economic relations. With a foreign trade volume of more than euro 24 billion, the USA is one of Bavaria’s most important business partners. Some 750 Bavarian companies have a branch office in the USA and, vice versa, there are also some 850 US companies actively operating in Bavaria, about one quarter of which are based in California. The Bavarian representative offices in San Francisco and New York provide free, comprehensive, on-the-spot support for US companies interested in Bavaria.

Source: Invest in Bavaria

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