Next week, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Lilianne Ploumen will visit Mexico with an economic mission consisting of 23 Dutch companies. The programme, which will focus on energy and maritime issues (ports, dredging firm, shipbuilding), follows recent reforms to the Mexican energy market. In addition to promoting trade relations, Ms Ploumen will attend a meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation, which she co-chairs.
After the US, the Netherlands is the largest foreign investor in Mexico (€10 billion annually). The above-mentioned energy reforms are a source of opportunity for Dutch companies and knowledge institutes in the energy and maritime sectors.
On Wednesday 2 September Ms Ploumen will visit the Mexican state of Campeche, where over half of all Mexican oil is produced. While there, she will stop by the offices of Dutch geotechnical service provider Fugro in the port of Ciudad del Carmen and of the offshore company Naviera Integral, whose advanced security systems are provided by Damen Shipyards.
There are opportunities for the Netherlands in Mexico in a variety of areas: offshore services, port development, pipelines construction and shipbuilding. Mexico sees the Netherlands as a source of much-needed expertise on energy reform and innovation.
On Thursday 3 September a networking meeting will be held in Mexico City for business leaders. Ms Ploumen herself will meet with the CEO of Pemex (the state oil company), the Secretary of Foreign Relations and the Secretary of Energy. Various commercial contracts will be signed, and an agreement will be concluded on a Dutch-Mexican energy partnership.
CSR
Mexico has shown interest in the Netherlands’ aspirations in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). At a meeting in Campeche participants will discuss workplace safety in the energy sector, which is a priority issue in both the Netherlands and Mexico. In Mexico City the Secretary of Foreign Relations will attend a CSR forum on sustainability in the energy industry. The focus will be on the involvement of the government, business community and NGOs, and the need to consult indigenous groups on major infrastructural projects.
Development cooperation
On Friday Ms Ploumen will act as co-chair of the semi-annual meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC), an international platform that brings together governments, businesses, civil society and philanthropic groups to share experiences on how best to implement investments, programmes and projects. Together with Mexico and Malawi, the Netherlands will launch a partnership in which water experts from all three countries will work to reduce the risk of floods in Malawi. The conference will take place in the framework of the UN’s development goals, which will be adopted by the General Assembly in New York later in September.
