In cooperation with Province Noord-Brabant and participation of the State of Minas Gerais, the Embassy of Brazil in The Hague organized the 10th Brazil Network Day (BND) on March 29th in the Chassé Theater in Breda. BND Breda was supported by Rabobank, Baker McKenzie Amsterdam, EY, Neogrid Netherlands and Air Europa.
BND program started with a Plenary & Debate Session: “Brazil & Netherlands, on the road to sustainable growth”, which were divided in two consecutive panel sessions. The first panel (14h30 hrs), dealt with issues related to business, investments and cooperation between Minas Gerais/Brazil and Noord-Brabant/The Netherlands in the areas of biomass and renewable energies.
The second panel (16h30), opened by former Prime-Minister Jan-Peter Balkenend, covered points related to sustainability and related business and investments opportunities between Brazil and the Netherlands. Living Lab Biobased Brazil was indicated as example of triple-helix initiative between Noord-Brabant and Minas Gerais.
Aiming to strengthen the bilateral cooperation, Province of Noord-Brabant and State of Minas Gerais signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Breda to further expand cooperation in the fields of water management, sustainable and environment technologies. In cooperation with Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), Nuffic-Neso Brazil, Institute of Integrated Development of Minas Gerais (INDI) and Secretariat for Technologies and High Education of the State of Minas Gerais (SECTES), BND also had the participation of a Brazilian delegation of government, companies and high-education representatives of the State of Minas Gerais.
The delegation also carried out an agenda of meetings and technical visits in the Netherlands from March 29th to April 1st.
The BND Business Cocktail (18h00 – 21h00) was opened by Ambassador of Brazil, Mr. Piragibe S. Tarragô, and by the King’s Commissioner for Noord-Brabant, Mr. Wim van de Donk. Among other talking points, both addressed the importance of continuing bilateral efforts to prospect further business, investments and cooperation opportunities between Brazil and the Netherlands.
Photo from left to right: Mr. Bert Pauli (Noord-Brabant Vice-Governor for Economic and International Affairs), Mr. Wim van de Donk (King’s Commissioner for Noord-Brabant) and Mr. Piragibe S. Tarragô, Ambassador of Brazil. By gathering more than 350 guests, BND Breda offered a relax setting for professional networking among entrepreneurs (doing or considering doing) business or investing in the Brazil-Netherlands corridor.
Following the BND tradition, during the business cocktail 4 return-tickets to Brazil were raffled among the BND participants. BND congratulate the winners: Mr. Kees Verdoorn (MME Group), Mr. Jochem Porte (Ministry of Economic Affairs), Mr. Harrie de Leijer (STC-Nestra) and Mr. Vincent Panhuysen (Kaan Architecten).
Click here to view more photos of BND Breda.
Further, as Brazil will be hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2016 and EY is also among of the official sponsors, I would like to recall your attention to the following: NOC*NSF (Dutch Olympic Committee) is organizing the Olympic Experience, a master class due to take place on August 16th in Scheveningen.
Once EY will be taking 35 invitees to this initiative and there are still few places available, if you are interested click here for more information.
By thanking Province Noord-Brabant and all the sponsors and guests of BND Breda, the Embassy of Brazil in The Hague has resumed talks concerning the organization of the next edition of BND. At the moment there are 4 Dutch counterparts interested in co-hosting the second edition of 2016.
