Ambassador Fisher on scientific cooperation

Ambassador was still under the impression of an official visit of Croatian President dr. Ivo Josipovic to Germany, at the end of January.  So, speaking of numerous scientific and educational cooperations between the two countries, he emphasised that the presidential couple - Ivo Josipović and wife Tatjana, both doctors of legal sciences were also involved in projects at the Max Plack Institute.

Science - indicator of social development

Speaking to the present scientists Ambassador Fisher admitted he had bad grades in math, physics and chemistry, but as a diplomat he dismissed the initial bias towards the science when he realized that the science is just an indicator of social development. He also stressed that when China and India developed science it enabled their inhabitants to develop their respective countries and to be economically independent.

- Relations between Germany and Croatia are based on emotion that Germany was on your side when Croatia was established. Today, I have no work to do as an ambassador, because there is absolutely no problem between Croatia and Germany - said the ambassador.

However, there is a lot of room to deepen economic relations. The largest ever German-Croatian business forum, held in June 2010 in Zagreb,  was attended by representatives of German companies interested in jobs in the area of infrastructure, energy, agriculture and tourism. Although there was a big interest from the Croatian side also, no big movements happened afterwards.

Germany missing 25 000 engineers

- Today we are in a situation that German companies have a contract worth USD 25 billion  for railway construction in Qatar, and here in Croatia, we are trying to convince the Croatian Railways to do business with us. Of course, I am not talking in terms of economic imperialism. Here in Croatia , for example, German Siemens produces  engines and machinery for the world market, TUI improves Croatia's tourist industry, and  German company in Čakovec makes boots for Croatian and German soldiers in Afghanistan, and for police officers and firefighters throughout the world - said Ambassador.

In the future this economic relations will certainly deepen, also because there are hundreds of thousends of  Croatians that have worked in Germany after the Second World War, and now there are their children, that are enterpreneurs in Germany and are starting business in their fathers homeland. Also, because of this good image that Croatian workers have established in Germany, they will be demanded also in big numbers in the future, especially when Croatia enters EU. 

At this moment, Germany is missing 25 000 engineers and 400,000 professionals. At the same time there are 3 million unemployed Germans. From this quota, however, re-training can not create engineers and scientists, who can be raised only from a young age. Since  that family background is also a limiting factor in the education of scientists, so from there can not be generated  sudden growth of big numbers of ingeneers, Germany invests a lot in bringing scholars from other countries. German Cultural Fund has an annual budget of USD 5 billion for programs of cultural and scientific education, and Germany is the third countriy in the world in the number of foreign students. In total now there are 50,000 foreigners studying in Germany -  4000 are students from Croatia. German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), financially supports numerous scholarship programs and programs of cooperation with the participation of Croatian students and scholars. Only in the academic year 2009/2010 they participated in academic exchange of  222 persons from Croatia and 154 from Germany. The total volume of financial resources for that exchange is 810 000 euros.

 
- We are especially proud of the scholarship program of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, intended for the development of top scientists. Most of the applicants for this elite scientific programme are from Japan  Unfortunately, during last years we did not have enough applicants from Croatia. Please, think about it - Ambassador Fisher invited present scientists.