Chancellor Scholz celebrates Germany-India digitalisation partnership

The Federal Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz, celebrated the Germany-India digitalisation partnership during a visit to SAP Labs in Bengaluru, India.

Germany is the largest trade partner of India in the European Union and ninth largest investor. The two countries have made collaboration agreements on artificial intelligence, clean energy, smart cities, startups, and Industry 4.0.

Chancellor Scholz praised India for driving innovation and setting an example in the fields of digitalisation, cloud computing, and AI.

“The fact that Germany’s biggest digital company is succeeding in India with Indian expertise and ingenuity is a great example of the living bridge between our two countries,” said Chancellor Scholz.

Visiting SAP’s largest R&D location, the German Chancellor received demos for digital supply chain, e-mobility, upskilling, networked enterprises, and human capital engagement.

“[SAP Labs India is] fueling SAP’s transformation into the cloud in one of the world’s fastest-growing regions. As a strategic location for nurturing the growth of skilled tech talent, SAP Labs India is helping drive the move towards a knowledge-based economy,” said Christian Klein, CEO and member of the Executive Board of SAP SE.

Scholz welcomes India’s tech talent to Germany

In 2020, more than 1,700 companies created in excess of 400,000 jobs in India. Meanwhile, over 200 Indian companies have registered offices in Germany and invested more than US$7.07 billion.

“We are excited to fuel India and Germany’s bilateral relations and partnership in the areas of new technologies, digitalisation, sustainability, and climate change,” said Sindhu Gangadharan, MD and SVP of SAP Labs India.

The visit by Chancellor Scholz marks the 25th anniversary of SAP Labs India and highlights the continuing collaboration between Germany and India in the area of digitalisation. The Chancellor also held talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi who will host the next leaders summit of the group of 20 nations in September.

Urging India’s strong IT specialists in an attempt to solve the country’s labour shortage, Scholz said his coalition government is planning to reduce immigration hurdles and introduce a point-based that would grant visas to even those who do not have a firm job offer.

Chancellor Scholz also tweeted: “India is a high-tech nation with enormous competence in digitisation. That impressed me, for example at SAP in Bengaluru, the second stop on my trip to India. As a strong and open country, [Germany] can benefit greatly from the exchange – especially of specialists.”

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