Adapting to the current market

Kuwait

Christoph Saager, chairman of the German Business Council Kuwait (GBCK), talks to The Energy Year about the council’s mission and how it adapts to changing situations within Kuwait. The GBCK is a non-profit organization that promotes and cultivates relations between German, Austrian and Swiss individuals and companies and their Kuwaiti and regional counterparts.

What is the key mission of the GBCK?
The GBCK is a non-profit organization and business networking platform founded in 2005. We aim to promote and cultivate relations between German-speaking individuals and companies and their counterparts from the host country and the region. We arrange monthly business events to increase the profile of the German-speaking economic presence and provide regular networking opportunities and information exchange. The GBCK is conducting its operations in close and trusting cooperation with the German, Austrian and Swiss embassies and local and international economic institutions.

How do you adapt your services to time and the economic situation in Kuwait?
We constantly adapt our programme based on the current market situation. We do this by teaming up with local trade fairs and conferences and monitoring market developments. Such developments are shared with our members through insight reports, project site visits or high-level presentations. During the pandemic, we naturally focused on social media and opened a “first response” group which brought us closer to our members and is today used to exchange information instantly.

Which are the key objectives that GBCK has for 2023?
Our primary focus lies in providing the quality service our countries are known for. To achieve this, the number of our members is and will remain limited. We are kicking off our year with one of the presently most spoken about topics – gas – and we aim to further cover sectors that haven’t been included for some time and deserve an update. Another plan that has already been set in motion is to work closer with our fellow business councils by organizing joint events, like the BF9 – Industry Day (9 Business Councils – 12 Countries – 1 Forum). We are looking for synergies that will result in actual benefit for our members across business councils.

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