Thiruvananthapuram, Wednesday 30 December 2009: Ambassador of Federal Republic of Germany Thomas Matussek is in Kerala now as part of his country’s new interest in enlarging and fostering relations with the State.

Matussek met Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan and also other Ministers, political leaders, the business community, the authorities of the University of Kerala and technocrats in the State capital. He also visited the Technopark.

Addressing the media afterwards, he said there were several areas in which the Federal Republic of Germany and Kerala could come together. Bavaria, the largest State in Germany in terms of area, had especially evinced an interest in building up stronger ties than at present with Kerala, he said.

Matussek said he was a great deal impressed by what he saw here during his visit. The State, which had excellent manpower talent and natural beauty, had all it takes for taking cutting edge technologies and a high quality of living together. He said he saw big possibilities in relations between Germany and Kerala.

He said the German consulate would be looking to bring together small companies from either side. By small companies, he said he meant companies that had cutting edge technologies and were on the growth path.

The big companies were capable of doing their own prospecting work for investing and establishing tie-ups, he added.

Another area he found great prospects for cooperation was education, he said. In Germany, they had a system in place for extremely efficient vocational training. This system puts the students through direct exposure in the chosen vocation with three-day stints each week in real working environment and three days in regular classrooms.

He said Kerala could gain from such a system, especially because of its young manpower talent. Germany could also offer its expertise and technologies in ports and transport sectors too.