Dignitaries from Singapore, Indonesia, Nepal and Malaysia visited Jacobs University recently to attend the traditional reception by Ostasiatischer Verein Bremen e.V. (OAV). They were joined by guests from business, politics and science at the event preceding the annual founding celebration of the OAV.
March 5, 2015
The guests of honor included His Excellency Mr. Jai Sohan, the Ambassador of Singapore to Germany, Dr. Siswo Pramono, the Deputy Chief of the Indonesian Embassy in Berlin, Mr. Prakash Mani Paudel, the Chargé d’Affaires of Nepal in Germany and Mr. Wan Mohd Afeek Afifi Wan Ali, Second Secretary of the Malaysian Embassy in Berlin.
After welcoming addresses by Hans Christian Specht, Chairman of the OAV, and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Katja Windt, President of Jacobs University, Professor Selçuk Esenbel from Boğaziçi University in Istanbul shared her “Reflections on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN as a Special Success Story of Regionalization”.
Her talk was followed by Jacobs University students Hanna Smidt and Rico Dittrich, who had both spent some of their studies in Nepal and Shanghai respectively. They told the audience about their experiences on the “Way to Asia” citing the internationality and diversity of Jacobs University’s community as one of the reasons for them wanting to spend time in Asia in the first place. Rico Dittrich said: “Our campus might be small but it has nonetheless made me a global citizen through its internationality and diversity.”
Hanna and Rico weren’t the only Jacobs students on stage; the audience also enjoyed musical contributions by Yingzaho Zhu from China, Benedikt Reinke from Germany and Ali Bargu from Turkey and Germany.
In his closing remarks Thomas Kriwat, Deputy Chairman of the OAV, echoed the words of Mr Specht at the at beginning of the evening, stressing the role of the OAV for building bridges and building friendships between Bremen and Asia and welcomed the events as a great opportunity for exchange between science and industry. He was also impressed by the talks and performances by the Jacobs students, whom he referred to as great ambassadors for Bremen.
Author: Jacobs University [1]
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