NIC Berlin Conference “New Europe and Germany” Post Event Report

BERLIN, 22 – 24 April 2018 – The NUS Medicine International Council (NIC) hosted its first international conference in Berlin, Germany. The conference “New Europe and Germany” featured top international speakers including Minister Joschka Fischer, former Vice Chancellor of Germany, Dr Wolf Plesmann, Member of the Social Democratic Party, Dr Azeem Ibrahim, Senior Fellow at the Centre for Global Policy in Washington, and Dr Rudolf Gridl, Head of Division, Internet Governance and International Digital Dialogue, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy in Germany.

Minister Joschka Fischer offered a candid assessment of Germany’s past and present leadership role in the future of the European Union, noting the political stagnation of the European Union and the mounting economic and geopolitical risks. Other speakers addressed the foreign policy implications of nationalism, immigration and cybersecurity for Europe and Germany. The last day of the conference featured several presentations on healthcare innovations ranging from facial recognition technology that can predict ageing and diseases as well as blood diagnostic tests with far reaching benefits to the public and researchers in terms of cost and precision.

One of the many conference highlights included an opening dinner at the Singapore Embassy in Berlin, where Ambassador Laurence Bay, Ambassador from Singapore to the Republic of Germany, shared an inspirational speech to welcome NIC delegates and friends. The next NIC conference will be the Raffles Dialogue: Towards Resilient and Empowered Societies on November 27 – 28 in Singapore.

The full NIC Berlin conference programme can be found here.