'Benefiting both sides'

Opening doors to new markets

Anyone aspiring to succeed in business in foreign countries needs more than just business management expertise. Since 1998, Fit for partnership with Germany – the Manager Training programme of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology – has been bringing some 800 managers a year from emerging economies such as Kazakhstan and India to Germany, and systematically preparing them to establish business contacts and cooperate with German companies. Since 2006 the programme has also been open to German companies that wish to do business with Russia. Around 270 German companies have since had their managerial staff trained as ‘Russia specialists’. Along the same lines, China was also included in 2012.

More than 7,000 foreign companies have benefited from the programme, which GIZ is coordinating. This creates a win-win situation in which the programme also opens doors for German companies to enter new markets. And public money is put to effective use. The business generated by the programme is worth many times the amount spent.

This article was first published in the GIZ company report 2012.