On 18 May 2021, the EU SME Centre met with Jan-Emile van Rossum, Head of the Economic Department and Jan Maas, Policy Officer Trade & Economy of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in China. The meeting was arranged after the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), a government agency which operates under the auspices of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, had been in contact with the Centre to discuss a proposal for cooperation. On behalf of RVO, a physical meeting with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Beijing was thus arranged to discuss the opportunities to collaborate on the organization of activities of the interest of Dutch companies.
As China’s first tier cities are becoming increasingly competitive, European SMEs are moving the focus from China’s biggest metropolitan cities to deeper into the country to search for new and attractive business opportunities.
Since one of the main focuses of phase III of the Centre is to explore the opportunities for European SMEs in second and third tier cities, collaboration opportunities between the Centre, RVO and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to explore these opportunities were thus discussed.
As the Dutch business network already has 11 offices in China and the community is continuously extending in China’s second tier cities, the Centre welcome this opportunity to collaborate with RVO and the Embassy on activities for the interest of Dutch companies. The discussions of a possible official partnership, through the signing of an MoU between the Centre and RVO will continue in the following weeks.
