Netherlands Innovation Network France a republié ceci
Yesterday was the first day of my visit to Paris. Together with my colleagues Willemijn Berenschot and Elsa Cizeau I am meeting French investors, and yesterday, together with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in France, we arranged two wonderful events. Over lunch, we learned how prominent French companies’ large investments in the Netherlands contribute to the Dutch economy and, most importantly, also to the well-being of our society. From bringing innovative cures to cancer patients and improving sustainable infrastructure to enhance the logistics network, to cooperation with our High Tech clusters to improve security and strategic autonomy. Thank you to Martijn Adelaar for hosting us, and to Ciril Faia from Curium Pharma, Philippe Duhamel from Thales and Patrice BERGAMINI from CMA CGM for sharing your insights. We are looking forward to continuing our fruitful collaboration in the future. In the evening, we sat down with PGGM, one of the biggest Dutch pension funds, and with representatives of large French corporates to discuss the importance of French-Dutch cooperation and to explore opportunities of cooperation between Dutch and French companies to speed up the transition. It was great to bring a diverse group of parties together and learn what is already happening. Everyone is aware we still need to do a lot, but compared to a few years ago, we are definitely underway and fully aware that we need each other to reach the goals. I loved the energy with which the companies and PGGM are working. Thank you, Elsa Cizeau, Willemijn Berenschot, Stefan Koreneef, Martijn Adelaar and Mariëtte van Empel for a great start of my visit and looking forward to what the next couple of days in Paris will bring.