Story by Victor Seow
Pix by Law Suun Ting
STEFFEN Kampeter, a member of the German Bundestag (lower house of Parliament), recently visited Malaysia and paid Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng a courtesy visit on Dec 10 at the latter’s office.
The 30-minute meeting between Kampeter and Lim centred around the exchange of ideas on how Penang and Germany can foster closer ties in economic cooperation, education, science and technology as well as human rights issues.
“I am here in Penang because I’m very interested in how the German businesses are getting on. I’m very impressed how good they spoke of your policies, the economic-friendly policies, the good working conditions here and the stable environment.
“The German businesses are expanding and they are very satisfied with your administration and the circumstances they see here. I have to show you my respect,” Kampeter told Lim.
Lim, on his part, also expressed the keen interest of his state government in learning the German way of doing things, especially those which concerned science and technology.
“We want to learn from Germany. We are an admirer of the German system and German technology especially. German vocational education is the best in the world. We have managed to bring in the German vocational education system into Penang,” Lim said.
“We feel that Germany can play a major role in Penang because of your culture. We have the biggest Oktoberfest celebration here. I like your bicycle lanes in Germany and we are trying to do the same here in Penang,” added Lim.
Also present were the Honorary Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany in Penang Datuk Herbert Weiler and Jan Hendrik van Thiel who is the minister counsellor and deputy head of mission at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Malaysia.} else {