Bavaria’s foreign representatives’ conference: Bavaria goes global

Globalisation means that a country’s economic success is no longer decided solely at home nowadays. Standing and contacts abroad are at least just as important: because talents, partners, markets, investors, all these factors are found thousands of kilometres away from the place of origin just as often today as enterprises who want to open up new markets in Germany and in that way enrich the local economy. That is why it is more important than ever to be well connected throughout the world.

Bavaria manages to do this exceedingly well thanks to its network of foreign representatives. The idea behind it has a long tradition: envoys already represented Bavaria in neighbouring countries about 400 years ago. There was only a departure from this between 1919 and the 1980s. Since then, Bavaria has vigorously reactivated and continuously expanded the network: Tokyo, South Africa, Russia, the USA, China, Brazil, Mexico, India, Turkey, by now, the list of representatives has become long again and more international than ever.

A correspondingly large number of guests travelled a long way to attend the foreign representatives’ conference from 12 to 15 March in Munich. The event was hosted by the Bavarian State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy. Just how seriously Bavaria takes its economic representation abroad is illustrated by the presence of Minister of Economic Affairs Hubert Aiwanger and State Secretary Roland Weigert. They also participated in lively discussions on future trade policy challenges and urgent potential for innovation in the areas of AI and digitisation. The focus was also on supporting foreign companies who take the step of moving to Bavaria: needs, industry emphasis, opportunities, the foreign representatives have to know exactly about all these aspects in order to be able to offer tailored support in their individual countries.

After all, their goal is to position and market Bavaria abroad in precisely this respect. On the other hand, though, Bavarian or foreign enterprises based in Bavaria get assistance from Bayern International in establishing themselves on international markets: "As German-speaking partners, our Bavarian foreign representatives support enterprises locally with tapping into new export markets. They also establish contacts with potential investors and support them together with Invest in Bavaria" explains Hubert Aiwanger. The foreign representatives are therefore an extension of Bavaria and helping hand for interested enterprises, but as the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ envoys, they also strengthen bilateral economic relations. The agenda has now been set in Munich to ensure that Bavaria leaves a lasting impression behind and remains globally successful in the future too.