Mariem Dekhili speaks with Austria’s Ambassador to the United Arab of Emirates, His Excellency Dr. Etienne Berchtold, about people-to-people relations in the final part of this three part series.
H.E. Dr. Berchtold’s Profile
Dr. Etienne Berchtold assumed his post as Ambassador of the Republic of Austria to the United Arab Emirates in August 2022.
Prior to his appointment, Dr. Berchtold served at the Federal Chancellery as Foreign and European Policy Spokesperson to Federal Chancellors Karl Nehammer, Alexander Schallenberg, and Sebastian Kurz.
A trained lawyer, he previously worked as Spokesperson to Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz and held positions at Austria’s Permanent Representation to the European Union in Brussels, as well as with Shell Austria GmbH.
A Litmus Test for Entrepreneurship
(00:00) Dr. Etienne Berchtold: “The great thing about the UAE is that you host 200 different ethnicities and nationalities.
What we can learn from you in the field of education and the application of new technologies is that you have already a very cosmopolitan landscape in user scene, user ecosystem, which is very cosmopolitan.
Whenever we have a new application and there are new ones coming up literally every week.
(00:27) Dr. Etienne Berchtold: So if it’s well received here, you have a very good understanding of that thing might be a success globally.
But if you encounter challenges, you know exactly very quickly where to exactly how to fix it so that you can have a global application of it and not just the European one or a Northern American one."
Digital Bridges: Austria-UAE Potential Collaboration
(00:54) Dr. Etienne Berchtold: “I see a lot of mutual cooperation where we can exchange best practice and see how to use applications here as a test case and vice versa.
If UAE companies, GCC companies want to see how it's being perceived in Europe, they can use Austria as a launchpad.
We can create those digital bridges, which would be a wonderful thing.
Then universities as well, they can do research and exchange best practice and research in both settings, in the embassy being very diverse can also bring very valuable real life input into how best to also tweak it a bit and how to adapt it for users and their experiences with students from all over the world.”
(01:21) Dr. Etienne Berchtold: “That makes your success story so great that you have so many people stemming from different backgrounds and they all together make it very, very strong case for the UAE in the GCC, right?”
Keep up with Daily Euro Times for more updates!
Read also:
Another One On the List: What is the EU-UAE CEPA?
Talking Diplomacy at a Time of War
Neutrality in Question: Austria Debates Age Old Thinking
