Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 17 (PTI) Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has inaugurated the Goethe-Zentrum in the Kerala capital to house Germany's language centre and the office of the Honorary Consul.

Speaking on the occasion after the lighting of the lamp at the new building at D-9 Jawahar Nagar on Thursday evening, Vijayan said the relationship between Kerala and Germany dates back to the 19th century, with the arrival of the Basel Mission in Kozhikode, which had contributed significantly to the progress of the Malabar region in the areas of education, industry and social transformation.

In this context, he also recalled the contributions of Hermann Gundert who compiled a Malayalam grammar book 'Malayalabhaasha Vyakaranam'.

The chief minister said that with the signing of the Triple Win Agreement between India and the German Federal Employment Agency in December 2021 to recruit 1,500 nurses from Kerala, Goethe-Zentrum, which was set up in Thiruvananthapuram and later in Kochi, became the official partner to provide German language training to these candidates.

He expressed happiness over the fact that 30,000 candidates wrote the Goethe-Certificate examinations at both of these centres in Kerala.

Thus, Kerala has become the pioneer in India to partner directly with Germany for fair and ethically correct migration of human resources, the CM is quoted as saying in a release here on Friday.

Vijayan recalled the visit of the German Federal Minister of Labour Hubertus Heil to Thiruvananthapuram in July this year and the discussions he held with the state government on expanding ties.

The inaugural ceremony was attended by dignitaries, including German Consul General and Regional Director of the Goethe-Institut (South Asia) Achim Burkart, MP Shashi Tharoor, Kerala Chief Secretary Venu V and Mayor Arya Rajendran.

A part of the worldwide network of Goethe-Institut, the official language and cultural institute of Germany, the Zentrum has been functioning in the city for 15 years now.

It is managed by the Indo-German Language and Cultural Society under the Chairmanship of former Kerala Planning Board Member G Vijaya Raghavan. PTI TGB TGB ANE