‘At macro level, the Dutch and Indian economies are complementary and do not compete with one another. The economic growth in India is sustainable and its acceleration is driven by rising investments, saving rates and rising domestic consumption. India offers a rapidly expanding market and a huge work force. The Netherlands has know-how and capital resources looking for secure and rewarding channels of investment. India’s rapid development, increasing infrastructure investment and expanding consumer class offer immense and lucrative opportunities. This process can offer beneftis to both countries.’ Encouraging words of the ambassador of India in The Netherlands, Bhaswati Mukherjee in the ING Reporter of September 2012.
Big numbers
As Women on Wings we fully agree with Bhaswati. The know-how of our 50 experts is extremely valuable for rural entrepreneurs to scale up and to create growth for their business. In rural India the workforce is enormous. Creating 1 million jobs for women has a kind of unrealistic sound in The Netherlands, but in India the number is never an issue. People are used to big figures because of the 1,200,000 million inhabitants of India.
Benefit for both countries
Around 100 Indian companies are currently represented in the Netherlands. Of course all the international Dutch corporates are already in India, like AkzoNobel, Unilever, DHL, DSM, etc. But for small and medium sized companies India offers also a huge opportunity of doing business. As Fons Stoelinga, the Dutch ambassador in Delhi, told me 1 week ago, all the Dutch top innovation branches have potential in India. Companies in infrastructure, chemicals, horticulture, agri business, spread your wings to India. Let’s do business.
