Review 2020 and Outlook 2021

The year 2020 is not what any of us imagined, nor have any of us experienced such a year before. A tiny virus with the pretty name Corona has paralyzed the world and confronted us with unprecedented challenges in medicine, business and society as a whole. It has now claimed more than 1.6 million lives worldwide - and counting.

The pandemic is global, with no distinction between industrialized, emerging and developing countries. The virus cannot be stopped at borders, but we had to keep to borders of our own four walls in order not to overburden the health systems. As OWWF Bavaria, we were unable to carry out many of the activities we had planned.

Of course, we kept in touch digitally and maintained the exchange. In addition, we strengthened our cooperation with other associations that, like us, maintain the conversation with our near and far neighbors on many levels despite adverse (political) winds.

For example, together with the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations (Ostausschuss der Deutschen Wirtschaft), we were able to organize an online business forum on Russia with the theme "Building bridges in difficult times". The event, which attracted over 200 online participants, was praised by all sides. The success of this online forum has encouraged us to plan further events in this format. We will attempt to hold our unfeasible scheduled face-to-face events online in the first half of 2021. Likewise, we will try to set up the planned regulars' tables or, in new German, round tables, virtually. Preparations for this are underway. Building bridges out of barriers is more important than ever. We need international cooperation. The European Union, certainly a successful example of this, has to cope with the Brexit brought about by populist arguments. After Corona and with Corona, we need the revival of economic activity, not a politically induced lockdown of trade.

Our relations to the East have huge potential. We will continue to focus on the Danube region, the New Silk Road and Russia. We will continue the activities that were down in 2020 and develop new activities. In the first half of the year, this will probably only be possible digitally, but in the second half of the year, we will also rely on personal meetings and personal exchanges in the hope that the newly developed vaccines will stabilize the situation. This will include a delegation trip to Volgograd. Our website will have a new look at the beginning of 2021. We will try to keep you up to date and inform you about our activities even better than before.

Thank you very much for your commitment and cooperation in building bridges. We are counting on this also in 2021. We wish you a blessed Christmas and a healthy New Year.

Your OWWF Board