Dutch Revving to Re-write 400yr-old Trade History with India

The Netherlands has sent a high level delegation to India to tap the growing importance in the world economy of its long-standing trade partner. The five-day Netherlands economic mission which started on Monday is expected to feature various sectors including agriculture and automotive.

According to a Business Line report, the mission, led by Mr Marten van den Berg, Deputy Director-General for Foreign Economic Relations, brings 40 delegates from 27 companies, and will cover New Delhi, Chennai, Pune and Mumbai. Although majority of the group comprised of heads from the agro and automotive industries, the mission will also be exploring trade opportunities in areas such as, the life sciences and health, logistics and infrastructure, IT, tele-communications and innovative other sectors.

Last week, the Netherlands Ambassador to India Bob Hiensch has said that his country was eyeing greater bilateral trade between the two countries in coming years. He added that the Netherlands was hoping bilateral trade to reach €10bn by 2014.

Currently exports from India are valued at about €2.5bn and imports stood around €1.6bn. India and the Netherlands began their trading alliance since more than 400 years ago when the Dutch trading ships visited South and East coasts of India in search of spices and textiles.

The Holland delegation is mainly visiting India to showcase its prowess in various spheres including IT, agro-tech and water management systems to attract Indian companies whom desirous of entering the European market. It should be recalled that last month, Oedith Jaharia of the Netherlands India Chamber of Commerce and Trade told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that 25 percent of India’s fruits and vegetables were wasted in the absence of viable food processing technology. He suggested that India could use the Netherlands expertise in food processing to avoid such colossal waste.

The present economic outlook of the Netherlands is very attractive since the country is able to weather the recent global meltdown by bringing in foreign investments more than €3bn or about 30 percent of its GNP in 2009. Ms Jolanda van der Aart, who runs the India Desk at the Amsterdam Foreign Investment Office told Business Line that information, communication and technology was one of the five largest export revenue earner for the Netherlands, and has been growing at 4-5 percent every year, and this offered the Indian firms a huge opportunity by way of outsourcing and export and import of computer parts and systems.

By Jose Roy