22nd Arab-German Business Forum - Knowledge Transfer to Arab Countries

The 22nd Arab-German Business Forum took place in Berlin from 25 - 27 June 2019 at the invitation of the Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Ghorfa).

This year's partner country was the Arab Republic of Egypt. The guest of honor was the Prime Minister, H.E. Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, who was accompanied by a high-ranking Egyptian delegation from politics and business, amongst others the Transport Minister Kamel el-Wazir. Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates also sent ministers and ambassadors.

The patron of the event was the German Federal Minister of Economics and Energy, H.E. Peter Altmaier, who together with the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Dr. Gerd Müller, and the Minister for Transport and Digital Infrastructure, Andreas Scheuer, welcomed the 600 participants.

One central topic of the forum was the question of how to generate high-quality jobs in the Arab region even better in the future and how to counter the very high youth unemployment. One key to this is the quality of education and training. With its Vision Egypt 2030, Egypt has pushed ahead with the introduction of dual vocational training based on the German model.

In a round table on "Sustainability, Training & Education" Heiko Scholz, Global Director DB Rail Academy, the international training provider of DB Engineering & Consulting, explained the experiences of Deutsche Bahn (DB) with the introduction of dual vocational training in Arab countries and the challenges facing DB in the further training of railway experts in the Near and Middle East. In Egypt, for example, a comprehensive introduction of vocational training in the transport sector would form an important foundation for the future viability of the railway sector. Heiko Scholz presented the effects of digitalization on the vocational curricula and on the methods of competence development as well as DB's experience with the application of virtual reality, augmented reality and learning on demand in the transport sector.

Together with representatives of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, SAP, Siemens and Area 9, hurdles and approaches for the transfer of experience to the Arab world were discussed.