'START UP AMBASSADOR'

Austria’s first resident envoy in Singapore enthusiastically embraces the opportunity to pursue a new policy of engagement with Asia.

For a top-ranking diplomat, Austria’s self-professed “startup ambassador” to Singapore comes across as remarkably down to earth. “Let me just finish a cigarette” are the first words from Karin Fichtinger-Grohe, 51, as she answers the door at her Singapore apartment. “Can I get you anything to drink?”

The hospitality should not be a surprise — not from a woman who, when asked, names social skills as the foremost personality trait for a diplomat.

“I think you must have social skills and you must love people in order to be able to fulfill your job,” Ms Fichtinger-Grohe says brightly. “Because if I’m sitting in the office and saying, ‘Oh, I don’t want to see anybody’, I won’t be of added value to my country.”

Ms Fichtinger-Grohe is the first resident ambassador in Singapore from Austria, a landlocked central European E republic bliw it hi ha population of 8.8 million. Before she arrived in April 2016, trade commissioner Volker Ammann was the charge d’affaires.

“It was exciting, it was challenging and it was rewarding,” she says of the first half of her four-year posting. “I’m always talking about myself as a ‘startup ambassador’... The first phase of my term here can more or less be described as starting to network, to meet a lot of people, to get to know a lot of people and to let them know that Austria is now also present in the capacity of an ambassador.

“Yes, and of course, I had to start immediately to figure out what our common interests are, and where we can cooperate and what is of added value to both nations.”

High on her agenda are the interests of the European Union. Austria will assume the presidency of the Council of the European Union on July 1, of which it has held the role twice before — in 1998 and 2006.

BILATERAL ARRANGEMENTS

One of Ms Fichtinger-Grohe’s early acts in Singapore was setting up monthly get-togethers with ambassadors from other EU countries. “We have — as members of the EU, when it comes to external relations and in particular, Singapore — right now, two topics,” she says.

One is the free trade agreement between Singapore and the regional bloc, which would be the EU’s first such pact with an Asean country.

Negotiations concluded in 2014, but the outcome is still awaiting ratification after Europe’s top court ruled that all trade deals must get the go-ahead from the 38 national and regional parliaments across the EU.

Also on Singapore’s radar is a comprehensive open-skies arrangement between the EU and Asean, which would build on a bilateral horizontal aviation pact signed in 2006.

“I think everybody talks about the rise of China and the role of the United States. ... Austria is very much aware of the fact that China is becoming more and more important, not only for its neighbourhood but also for the rest of the world,” she says. “But, of course, China is not Asia, and we are fully aware of that.”

As for Ms Fichtinger-Grohe’s national priorities here, she quickly rattles them off: “Culture, research and development, science cooperation.”

Singapore is the veteran diplomat’s first posting in Asia, after various positions across Europe. Besides English and German, she also speaks French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Croatian. “Singapore has become the door-opener to Asia but I still feel a lot of similarities with the postings I’ve been (in) before,” she says, noting that she previously served in “very small” cities

such as Bern and Dublin.

“Even within Europe, the countries are astonishingly different. So it’s more about the small symbols than the big gestures, like, when do you have to wear or (take) off your shoes, when do you hand over the present, should you open the present immediately, how are you presenting your business card. ... In one way, of course, it’s a new experience, because I’ve never lived surrounded by that many high (rises) or skyscrapers. But on the other side, when it comes to my daily business, it’s very similar.”

The Singapore stint is also her first time in the rank of ambassador — a career milestone, which she calls “obviously the jewel in the crown” in her professional life.

“So, of course, you have all the traditions that come with this, presenting credentials — and when you do it the first time, by yourself, that is a very special moment.”

But it is not all glitz and glamour.

A career civil servant, Ms Fichtinger-Grohe has spent more than two decades in her country’s foreign service. “It’s not only that Singapore does not know that much about Austria,” she observes. “On the other side, the Austrians are not aware of the significance Singapore right at the moment has. And when we think about the global shifts, I think it is also a very important partner to Austria.”

That partnership includes scientific cooperation, with Ms Fichtinger-Grohe citing tie-ups between Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and other institutions.

For example, NTU signed four agreements in 2012 to pursue environmental sustainability with entities such as the University of Vienna and the Austrian solar panel company Crystalsol. It also teamed up with two academic institutes in 2015 to develop new medical technologies, with a joint research commitment of S$10 million.

“The success story of Singapore is impressive,” Ms Fichtinger-Grohe comments. “If you have the right measures, you can develop a country to such an extent that it’s possible to develop to certain standards.

“And I think what is also very impressive is the university structure in Singapore. I’ve been to all the universities and, in all honesty, I haven’t been in touch in the recent past with our universities, but I know that there is a difference.

“That can’t be neglected, and I think that this kind of innovative city, smart city, that is also a concept we want to perceive as an example. And as we try to compare best practices, why not come to a country where, obviously, there are a lot of such examples?”

Yet, perhaps slightly to her chagrin, it may seem like rolling hills and yodelling dominate Singaporeans’ impressions of Ms Fichtinger-Grohe’s homeland.

“Austria is deeply connected with music, first and foremost by Singaporeans” she remarks. “The culture, a beautiful landscape, and Mozart. And ... don’t forget The Sound of Music.”

The 1965 musical drama, based on the lives of the Von Trapp Family Singers, starred Julie Andrews as a song-happy Austrian nun turned governess during World War II.

But the ambassador then reels off a list of trade and industry achievements — including Austrian rider Matthias Walkner’s January Dakar Rally win under the joint flag of the motorcycle maker KTM and Red Bull.

After all, as she shares an office with the Austrian trade representation in Singapore, “you can imagine that we have very strong ties and links”, she says with a laugh.

Raising her glass of an amber energy drink, Ms Fichtinger-Grohe continues: “The funny thing is that a lot of Singaporeans are drinking an Austrian product, and are not aware that 49% of this product is owned by an Austrian.”

Businessman Dietrich Mateschitz co-founded Red Bull with Chaleo Yoovidhya, the Thai inventor of the beverage, to sell the drink outside its home market.

“But you also have to know Doppelmayr — that is a company that is doing these cable cars. Actually I think also Sentosa has been built by Doppelmayr.” She is correct.

“And they only opened recently the longest cable car in the world, and that is in Vietnam.” Indeed, the Hon Thom 3S gondola lift, unveiled in February, has a 7.9-kilometre ropeway across the Gulf of Thailand.

“And things like that. I can go on and on,” Ms Fichtinger-Grohe says triumphantly, noting that Austria is more than “the already-known cultural country with the big cultural heritage”.

CURIOSITY COUNTS

How does she manage to have a laundry list of fun facts about Austria so readily at hand?

“The life of a diplomat is a very exciting one because I have the opportunity of getting to know a lot of other professions, a lot of other people, a lot of other environments,” she notes.

“And if you stay in one place ... you don’t see that much. You don’t have an insight. How does an airport function or (how) this company produces — I don’t know — gloves, rubber gloves. How does this work? What are the challenges?

“So you always have to be curious — and that, for me, is most rewarding.”

She adds: “Of course, I had the tremendous help of my colleagues in the trade representation, who have built up the connections already for a lot of years.

“But extending also my field of interest to science, culture, meant that I had to develop a new pool of friends of Austria, let’s put it that way, because you only can come up with ideas and implement ideas if you have people, locals, who are fond of this idea and who are supportive.”

But that does not mean that Ms Fichtinger-Grohe represents only rubber glove makers and cable cars. The 18th-century composer Mozart, born in Salzburg, inevitably gets his time in the limelight when the ambassador promotes Austria.

“I think I’m very proud of the music lecture,” she says, referring to a recent talk by former Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra leader Clemens Hellsberg. The inaugural Vienna Music Lecture, held in March at the Victoria Concert Hall, was put on by both the Singapore Symphony Group and the embassy.

“As it was the first time ever, we didn’t have very high expectations, but we were surprised by the interest and the reactions we got throughout and after the lecture,” she recalls.

Austrian musical culture is closely tied to the dance tradition of the waltz. Its most famous iteration is the white-tie Vienna Opera Ball, staged at the state opera house since 1814 and now replicated worldwide.

“I think there are around 300 different balls organised in Vienna every year, and every profession or every parish — fire brigade, the farmers, the counties, the provinces — they all run balls,” Ms Fichtinger-Grohe remarks.

But, more than just about culture and entertainment, such soft-power events also tie in to her vocation: “Every year you have a lot of incoming visitors being invited by the government, the president. And besides the official, the governmental role, of these balls, there is also another aspect and that is that a lot of businesses, important companies, are represented there, and are inviting their partners or people who they want to do business with.

“So it’s, in one way or another, a big networking event.”

The sheer variety of experiences and encounters in Singapore — as well as communication tools such as social media — help to make up for how this is the mother of three’s first extended sojourn without her family, she says. They have stayed back in Europe so the children can attend school there.

Yet, even while satisfying her curiosity about seeing the world, Ms Fichtinger-Grohe counts herself lucky that she has never had to make a tough call over her personal ethics.

“That is part of professionalism — if you are not 100% of the opinion of your government, I think that’s everybody’s right,” she explains.

“Within a government, not every minister can agree on certain decisions taken and you always then have to follow your professional attitude, as to how you have to deal with this decision.

“Everybody has a certain line of morality, but so far I have not — have never — been in that situation. But I can imagine situations where I do not want to act. But I’m fortunate that I have not been in the position, so far, have never been put into this position.”

If push came to shove, how would she deal with such dilemmas?

“What is important to know, and particularly important to know for a diplomat, is: You always need to know how to explain some things,” she says.

“And if there is a reason for why there is this development, okay, I’m fine with it. If I don’t know why, then I have to start to ask. But if you can give an explanation why this or that has been decided, I think that’s okay.”

With half her term already over, Ms Fichtinger-Grohe is candid about both her record and her to-do list. She jokingly likens her role here to having “conquered new lands”.

“Don’t forget that in comparison to some other European countries — such as France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the Scandinavian countries — we don’t have the same historic ties as they have with the region and with Singapore in particular,” she says.

“I noticed that much more people realise now that there is also an ambassador in Singapore, so I think that is already a good signal.”

And as for what she looks forward to, she points to a recent gathering of Austrian diplomats where “we were informed that Asia is now going to be another focus of our foreign policy”.

“I think that was very timely, especially for me, being kind of new in this region,” she muses. “So I think that gives me more motivation to work even harder (in) the next two years.”

Business Times, Singapore

Austria is very much aware of the fact that China is becoming more and more important, not only for its neighbourhood but also for the rest of the world. But, of course, China is not Asia, and we are fully aware of that