Energizing Relations

GERMANY can help the Kingdom in areas like renewable energy, industry and vocational training, according to German Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Boris Ruge.

"We are already talking to our Saudi friends in the area of renewable energy," Ruge, who is leaving the Kingdom to take up a new assignment, told Saudi Gazette. He said the Kingdom has an enormous potential in solar and wind energy.

Germany has huge experience in that area, and it has spent a lot of money to move to a very high percentage of renewables as part of its energy mix. "We have a real knowledge that we can bring here. We are talking to the key players in the Kingdom."

Ruge said the Kingdom as part of Vision 2030 is looking to develop its industrial base. "This is where we can play a major role. So we offer traditional industrial manufacturing with the add-on of increasing digitization because that's how we work in the future," he said.

"All of us are part of a globalized economy. All of us are subject to competition. Therefore, none of us can rest on what we have. We have to develop to become better. So a country like the Kingdom does need a vision to achieve objectives toward which it can work. We welcome this. We underlined the areas where we can support and where we can be helpful. Renewable energy is one area in which we see a role. Developing industry is a more general area."

He said Vision 2030 gives much importance to culture. "We hope that the Kingdom will allow Germany to open cultural institutes in Riyadh and Jeddah that would teach not just the German language but would provide window on German culture."

The German ambassador said that one area that is very important in the Kingdom given its demography is education and vocational training. "We have a very strong tradition in the area of vocational training. We have been active in vocational training in the Kingdom for many decades. Youth unemployment in Germany is among the lowest in the world. One of the reasons for that is that we have vocational training which is based for the most part in companies."

Ruge revealed that Siemens — the largest engineering company in Europe headquartered in Berlin and Munich — is working with Saudi Aramco, General Electric and Sabic to set up a National Power Academy in the Kingdom to train young people.

He said that his country is involved in vocational training in a technical college in Yanbu for many years. Germany is the leading actor in the technical trainers college in Riyadh. It is working with Saudi Aramco on the National Industry Technology in the Eastern Province.