All is not well in State, says German diplomat

After Bosch, Consul-General Rohde joins chorus

Days after auto component giant Bosch said it was contemplating on moving out of Karnataka for delay in approvals, German consul-general in Bengaluru Jörn Rohde slammed the State government for being complacent.

In a one-to-one conversation with Deccan Herald, Rohde said “not everything is okay with the Karnataka government”and that “there is big room for improvement”.

Rohde spoke on the sidelines of an event organised here by the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) where the consul-general announced German-led initiative to support Indian SMEs (small and medium enterprises).

Taking a dig at the Global Investors’ Meet (GIM) scheduled for November 23-25, the consul-general said getting existing companies to say this is a great place to invest “would be more convincing than handing out coloured brochures”.

Rohde’s statement comes just a month after Steffen Berns, India head of the €49-billion German giant Bosch, took the lectern at another business chamber-organised event (Bangalore Chambers of Industry and Commerce AGM) to announce that the company was thinking of ditching Karnataka.

Berns had lamented about Bosch facing issues despite its presence in the state for more than 60 years.

On Friday, the consul-general drew an even older connect for Germany, which was not working well.

‘History of association’
“Germany has a long history of association with Karnataka since World War II. But Pune is more dynamic than Bengaluru as far as manufacturing investments are concerned. My strong view I want to make here is this. Ten-years-ago Bengaluru had more German companies than Pune.

The number of German companies here is still growing, but Pune has 300 German companies compared with Bengaluru, which has just 180,”said Rohde.

The consul-general then spoke about Berns comment: “If you remember, Steffen Berns had given a speech a few weeks ago expressing dissatisfaction. I wish to say that not everything is okay with the Karnataka government...there is big room for improvement. But I still feel that Bengaluru is a happening place, there are lots of opportunities here. We should all work together and maybe we can come back to a situation where we were 10 years ago.”

When asked why German companies were opting for Pune, Rohde did not mince words when he said, “There is little bit of complacency in Karnataka. The time taken in Karnataka for approvals is more when compared with Maharashtra or even some other states. Investment decisions are made where parameters are the best. It shows that Pune is more dynamic than Bengaluru.”