World Trade Center is collaborating with SAS Partners in Chennai to organise a series of webinars which will present the business prospects of foreign countries to Indian companies. The first session in the series was done together with Consulate General of Netherlands in Bengaluru.

Speakers:

Mr. Heine Lageveen, Deputy Consul General, Netherlands
Mr. Balaji Venkatraman, Area Director(South), Netherlands Foreign Investmnet Agency(NFIA)
Mr. Reinier W. L. Russel, Managing Partner, Russel Advocaten,Netherlands
R. Parthasarathy, Founder and MD-iSolve Technologies

Mr. Lageveen mentioned the 4 century old history of the Dutch in India. He spoke about the sector agnostic services offered by the consulate particularly to companies in both countries. He stressed on the innovation department through which knowledge exchange is stimulated. Netherlands largely export chemicals, machines and finished products while it imports clothes and pharmaceuticals from India. He also spoke on the linguistic similarity Netherlands shares with India.

Mr. Balaji said Netherlands is home to several international brands. He explained the support services offered by NFIA to those looking for collaborations. He said that Netherlands is also the digital gateway to Europe. Mr. Balaji listed prominent B2B events being organised in Netherlands. He touched upon the virtual tour which gives an overall view of the regulations, locations etc. This will be useful to know the advantages the country offers to those interested to invest.

Mr. Russel explained the legal services offered by their firm for Indian companies looking towards European markets. He touched upon the process on how to start business mainly a branch office, hiring and termination process etc.

Mr. Parthasarathy spoke about his experiences on setting up offices in Amsterdam. He commended on the ease of doing business, the transparency and professionalism demonstrated by the Government. He advised that it is important to have country specific strategy in order to stay focussed.

Dr. Bose Nair, VP-WTC made the opening remarks and Mr. Alex Koshy, Partner-SAS Partners presented the context of the session.

Mr. Vijay Kumar, Advisor to Netherlands Consulate General moderated the discussions.

Over 150 companies from IT & ITeS, Consulting, Manufacturing, Educational institutions, Engineering & Automation, Pharma & Biotechnology, Food & Agro products as well as Electronics sectors participated.