"No other German company has such deep roots on the African continent as Siemens", said Siegmar Proebstl, CEO of Siemens Africa, at the award ceremony in the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin. Over 150 years ago Siemens was already supplying telegraph engineering and generators to Africa, and nowadays its entire product portfolio is represented in Africa.
According to Proebstl, the company enjoys an outstanding reputation everywhere. "Bound up with this long tradition is a story of partnership and shared development with Africa". He said the main priority for German business in Africa was to deploy German expertise, technology and standards in the right places. "The growth potential for the region is enormous. Africa should be viewed as up there with the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries - the difference being that Africa is an entire continent", said Proebstl. Siemens now employs 3500 people at 13 locations on the continent.
"When choosing our winners we attached great importance to their exemplary and responsible contribution to stabilizing and further developing African societies", said Martin C. Wittig, CEO of Roland Berger, at the award ceremony. "This includes the consolidation of economic relationships and partnerships on an equal footing."
Wittig justified the choice of Africa as the topic for this year's BEB Awards by numerous prejudices that in the past ten years had been overtaken by reality, but that continue to inform the West's perception of the continent: "Africa currently holds out many economic opportunities that German companies can tap with their know-how, technologies and capital in concert with African partners.
This continent has long since ceased to be a monolithic block of poverty, hunger, sickness, war and corruption. Instead, Africa is a giant growth market and offers huge opportunities! Our award winners have seized these opportunities. They are successfully setting an example of optimistic prospects for Africa and thanks to their commitment are advancing the enormous potential of this continent."
German Economics Minister Philipp Rösler used his speech to stress the changes in Africa and the opportunities these bring for German businesses: "German businesses have a great deal to offer the African market, where their high-quality products and services are highly regarded."
He said an even closer integration of market liberalization and economic commitment was therefore in the mutual interests of both Africa and Germany. Economic cooperation was also contributing to sustained development: "German entrepreneurial commitment in Africa means adhering to international standards in social and environmental matters." Hence the German government was supporting firms' commitment to Africa with a wide range of measures to promote foreign trade and development cooperation.
Roland Berger also presented a study for the Africa awards. This shows that peace, political stability, civil rights, public participation and economic freedoms are on the rise everywhere on the continent, while poverty and illiteracy are falling and the quality of life is improving for more and more people. Even though there is still much to do, the study says the reality in Africa is now far removed from the usual perception in the West. Be it rapid economic growth or protection of investors' rights, a whole group of African countries is currently on a par with countries such as the BRIC states, Turkey, Malaysia and even a good many European countries.
