The Embassy of the Netherlands in India is a great ‘ambassador’ for Dutch companies. They organize trade missions to promote and boost trade between the two countries. Recently, Women on Wings joined a regional trade mission to Bihar, headed by Dutch Ambassador Mr. Alphonsus Stoelinga. Women on Wings does not yet operate in Bihar, but his trade mission has opened a lot of doors and has given us a good insight of our opportunities in Bihar. Thanks to the Embassy, new leads for business partners have been identified and a follow up trip to Bihar is planned for next week.
Since we started our office in India, there have been 2 missions headed by Dutch Ministers. September 2013, Women on Wings joined a trade mission headed by Ms. Lilianne Ploumen (Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation). Around 40 Dutch companies, including Women on Wings, were served by the Dutch Embassy with match making sessions with selected Indian parties, networking events and thematic workshops/seminars. It has brought us two MoU’s and many interesting contacts with whom we are discussing future collaborations. End of January, Ms. Edith Schippers (Minister for Health, Welfare and Sports) headed a trade mission to India. Women on Wings was invited for the network event at the Embassy on Ms. Schippers’ behalf and again met valuable contacts. With some we have planned follow up meetings.
Women on Wings is different from most other Dutch companies and organizations that work in India, but Ambassador Stoelinga, his staff, and the Dutch Consul General in Mumbai, know and support our mission. We get their full support to realize our goal of creating one million jobs for women in rural India. They always look for people and organizations that might be interesting for us and make the connection. It’s a great privilege to have such Ambassadors for our work in India.
