2nd Workshop for Young Diplomats on “THE ROLE OF ECONOMIC DIPLOMACY TODAY” 23rd – 25th October 2019, Istanbul - Foundation Office Turkey
Workshop
Details
The workshop was attended by 21 young diplomats from 12 BSEC Member States, who had an excellent opportunity to emphasize the importance of regional cooperation among the future foreign policy decision-makers in the Black Sea area and also to meet with their counterparts from the region.
Eminent personalities from the region and beyond such as Mr. Daniel MITOV, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria; Dr. Markus C, SLEVOGT, President of the German-Turkish Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Istanbul; Dr. Omar Ramon SERRANO, Research Associate, Technical University of Munich; Ms. Ellina SHAVLAY, Analyst, Laboratory of International Trends Analysis, MGIMO University in Moscow; Mr. Thomas AWE, Former Representative of KAS in Korea, Philippines, China and Japan; Amb. Arben ÇEJKU, Executive Director of the Albanian Center for Good Governance; Assoc.Prof. Dimitrios TRIANTAPHYLLOU, Director, Centre for International and European Studies (CIES) at Kadir Has University, Istanbul, attended the Workshop as speakers.
At the first evening of the workshop, welcoming speeches were held by Mr. Walter GLOS, Director of KAS Turkey Office and the Secretary General, Amb. Michael B. CHRISTIDES of BSEC PERMIS, underlining the importance of such events, which should be evaluated as a precious "investment" for the future and stated that the workshop has already proven to be a valuable vehicle promoting the spirit of friendship and good neighborliness between young diplomats from the region, thus contributing to the enhancement of mutual respect and confidence, of dialogue and cooperation.
The welcome speeches were followed by a keynote of Dr. Markus C. SLEVOGT, President of the German-Turkish Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Istanbul, who made a presentation on the importance of strategy development, stressing the need on the strategy process hierarchy, which bottom-up approach he described as: strategic control, strategy implementation, strategy formulation and strategic analysis. He stressed the importance of vision and goals, discipline, hard work, lifelong learning, never give up, responsibility, forward-looking and give back.
On the second day of the event, Mr. Walter GLOS informed the participants about the role and functioning of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung which is operating in more than 120 countries worldwide. He underlined that the Foundation is also active in the wider Black Sea region, supporting activities in areas such as: freedom of expression, gender equality, civil society activities, etc. He expressed the satisfaction of KAS for its valuable cooperation with BSEC PERMIS for more than 20 years and added, that this relation was related to the promotion of SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) for many years.
Afterwards Mr. Daniel MITOV, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria, shared some interesting moments from his experience as the “First Bulgarian Diplomat”. He stressed some important factors, which he believes should be taken into consideration when talking about economic diplomacy. He added that strong economic ties are not always a guarantee for effective conflict prevention and argued that the NGO sector has a big say also in the economic relations between countries, thus their role has to be taken into consideration. In his keynote speech about “Challenges of Economic Diplomacy” he described three main world scenarios that could be expected to materialize: 1) a world-wide zone of trade; 2) the formulation of big trade blocs, based on geopolitics; 3) the deconstruction of the global economic order.
The keynote was followed by a panel on “Global Economy Diplomacy - on the example of Germany, India and China”. Dr. Omar SERRANO stressed that the two key factors of the German economic diplomacy are trade and investment. Exports generate approx. 50% of the GDP, one in four jobs depend on exports. The main challenges facing the German economy today are: Brexit, trade conflicts with the US, US threat to impose tariffs on European cars, US - China trade war etc. Ms. Ellina SHAVLAY focused on India’s economic diplomacy and its economic success along with its grave socio-economic situation which laid the foundations for its economic diplomacy. Mr. Tomas AWE held a speech about China’s general economic diplomacy which is a rising state economy and very much open to new resources and markets. The “Road and Belt” initiative of the Chinese government was also touched upon as a powerful instrument for gaining influence of the Chinese economy worldwide.
In his keynote speech, Amb. Arben ÇEJKU emphasized the importance of the efficient use of so called "personal diplomacy", in the sense of using one’s personality and the appropriate behaviour. He noted that "personality diplomacy" as such is also being widely used by heads of state. He argued that diplomacy could and should also be enriched by the projection of a personal and engaging “touch” and advised young diplomats to develop similar qualities.
Prof.Dr. Dimitrios TRIANTAPHYLLOU indicated the BSEC Organization as an example of the importance of economic diplomacy today, although, unfortunately, the serious political differences between some of its Member States do not allow BSEC to manifest its contribution to the desirable level so BSEC can increase its presence and relevancy in the region and worldwide.
During the third day of the Workshop a simulation game on "How to effectively promote the economic cooperation in the Black Sea Area" took place in the BSEC Headquarters which was moderated by Mr. Nicholas EMIRZAS, First Secretary for Economic and Commercial Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic. It was conceived as an educational simulation to familiarize the young diplomats with some of the most topical issues of regional cooperation.
In concluding the event, Mr. Walter GLOS and Amb. Michael CHRISTEDES thanked all young diplomats for their active participation and expressed their conviction that this year’s second edition of the Workshop was even more successful than the first. The young diplomats which contributed a lot to establishing personal and business connections with other colleagues from the region, as well as to broaden their knowledge, mentioned that the experience they have gained during the workshop was extremely useful and rich.
