Zhuhai/Espelkamp, August 4, 2008 - The countdown is on. The XXIX Olympic Games open in Beijing on August 8. The German team consisting of over 400 athletes will be taking part. Michael Haaß, who plays for GWD Minden in the German national handball league, will be among them in the contests for the medals with the German national handball team in Beijing. Together with Horst Bredemeier, manager of GWD Minden and the German national handball team and Vice-President of the German Handball
Federation and Charly Hühnergarth, media spokesperson for the German Handball Federation, Michael Haaß paid a visit to the HARTING Technology Group’s new production plant in Zhuhai.

The HARTING Technology Group, which has its headquarters in Espelkamp in eastern Westphalia, has sponsored GWD Minden for just over a year. The sponsorship is part of an overall strategy the HARTING Technology Group is pursuing to promote sport, culture and science with the aim of enhancing the attraction of eastern Westphalia as a location.
While it has strong ties with the eastern Westphalia region, the HARTING Technology Group has consistently endeavored to establish itself internationally since 1979. The company is now represented worldwide with subsidiaries in 27 countries and the number is rising. HARTING also has a total of ten production sites around the world. The latest HARTING plant in Zhuhai in the South China Pacific region occupies a production and logistics area of 20,000 square meters. The € 12 million investment was officially opened in October last year. HARTING underlined the strategic importance of China as a growth market by opening its own production facility in China.
Zhuhai, a rapidly growing city, also attracted the German national handball team who set up its training camp there at the beginning of August in preparation for the Olympic competition. GWD Minden’s Horst Bredemeier and Michael Haaß joined Charly Hühnergarth, t