King and Queen to visit Bavaria (2)
Their Majesties King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima will pay a working visit to the German state of Bavaria on Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 April 2016. The purpose of the visit is to strengthen ties between the Netherlands and Bavaria.
Each year the King and Queen visit one or more German federal states, with a particular focus on economic relations. They will be accompanied on this visit by Lilianne Ploumen, the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, who will be leading a concurrent, two-day economic mission to Bavaria. The mission will revolve around ‘the economy of the future’, with a focus on high-tech industry (medical technology and eHealth, smart industry and urban mobility) and the agri-food and logistics sectors.
Wednesday 13 April – Munich
Cultural Cooperation – Alte Pinakothek
The King and Queen will begin their visit at the Alte Pinakothek museum in Munich, where they will reopen the its recently renovated Dutch gallery with its collection of 17th-century masterpieces from the Netherlands. An agreement will be signed in Their Majesties’ presence between Utrecht’s Centraal Museum and the Bavarian State Painting Collections on a joint exhibition of Carravaggisti to be held in 2018 and 2019.
Urban Mobility – BMW Group
The King and Queen will then continue to BMW Welt, the BMW Group’s exhibition and distribution centre. The German car manufacturer is celebrating its centenary this year. German and Dutch participants from the worlds of business, science and government will speak at a seminar on sustainable urban mobility. The Netherlands is an attractive partner for the German car industry in its quest for innovative and green mobility solutions. The BMW Mini, which the Dutch VDL Group has been manufacturing for the past two years, will be one of the topics of discussion at this event. In 2014 the King was present when production of the Mini was launched in the Dutch town of Born. Several sustainable and smart mobility solutions will also be showcased.
At the Residenz palace the King and Queen will be received by Bavarian Minister-President Horst Seehofer for a meeting and lunch. Mr Seehofer and the King will each give a speech.
Agri-food – Viktualienmarkt
At the Viktualienmarkt delicatessen market in Munich the King and Queen will open the Dutch-Bavarian pavilion, where businesses from the Dutch and Bavarian agri-food and horticulture sectors will sell sustainable and innovative products. This will strengthen the partnership between businesses, government and science on both sides of the border.
Smart Industry and Cyber Security – Deutsches Museum
At the Deutsches Museum for science and technology in Munich, the King and Queen will attend part of a Dutch-German forum on smart industry and cyber security. The forum will focus on the importance of cyber-security for industry, of cooperation between Dutch and German partners and of developing a common approach. The King and Queen will attend presentations on interbank security, cyber-security in robotics and other topics. Two Dutch-German partnership agreements will be signed in their presence: one between the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research TNO and its German equivalent Fraunhofer and another between the Dutch company Onegini and Samsung SDS.
In the evening the King and Queen will be welcomed at Munich’s New Town Hall (Neues Rathaus) by the city’s mayor Dieter Reiter. After signing the Golden Book they will proceed to the Old Town Hall (Altes Rathaus) where they will join a dinner for participants in the trade mission.
Thursday 14 April – Erlangen and Nuremberg
Medical Technology and eHealth – Siemens Healthcare and Medical Valley
The second day of the working visit will begin with a visit to Siemens Healthcare in Erlangen. Around 180 medical technology firms do business in this part of Bavaria, chiefly in X-ray technology, eHealth and rehabilitation. Siemens is a global player in this industry and an attractive partner for Dutch suppliers. The King and Queen will visit the production plant where Siemens MRI scanning equipment is manufactured.
They will then move on to Medical Valley to attend a Dutch-German dialogue where stakeholders will discuss trends, challenges and solutions in the fields of medical robotics, diagnostics and eHealth. At this event eHealth start-ups will connect with investors and possible partners like Siemens and Netherlands-based Philips Healthcare. Brainport Industries, based in the Netherlands, and Medical Valley EMN e.V. will sign a strategic partnership agreement.
Logistics – Nuremberg
At a lunch meeting the King and Queen will be briefed on the outcomes of a seminar on strategic transport issues attended by representatives of Dutch and Bavarian ministries, knowledge institutions and businesses. The seminar and lunch meeting will focus on sustainability, transparency and effectiveness in the transport sector and cooperation between Dutch and Bavarian partners. The King and Queen will then visit an information fair in the Town Hall and speak with entrepreneurs and organisations about collaboration between inland ports in Bavaria and the Port of Rotterdam and the importance of connections within Europe.
International law – Nuremberg Palace of Justice
In the afternoon the King and Queen will visit the Nuremberg Palace of Justice, particularly the ‘Saal 600’ courtroom where the Nuremberg trials were held after the Second World War. Their visit to the Memorium and ‘Saal 600’ highlights the historic and current ties between the Netherlands and Germany relating to international law, such as the setting up of the Nuremberg tribunal and the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies in The Hague and the International Nuremberg Principles Academy will sign a partnership agreement on enshrining knowledge and capacity in the field of international law in national legal orders. The royal couple will speak with stakeholders about this agreement and about human rights and international criminal law.
Culture – Albrecht Dürer’s House
The final event on the programme is a visit by the King and Queen to the former home and studio of the artist Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) in Nuremberg. They will open an exhibition of graphic works by Dürer, which were recently acquired by the city of Nuremberg. One of the works is a portrait of the Dutch humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam that Dürer made during a one-year stay in the Netherlands.
