Afsluiting business round table, 15 oktober 2025

Dear All,

First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Mayor of Xi’an, Ye Niuping, for the warm welcome and hospitality.

After weeks of rain, I understand, today was the first day that the sun was shining again. Thank you Mayor for making that possible. And thanks for the beautiful flowers I got on my arrival at the airport. As you probably know, Dutch people love flowers …

It is a true honor to be here in Xi’an, a city of immense historical legacy and a symbol of China’s openness to the world, both past and future. Xian is a city with a long history and the cultural significance of Xi’an, especially as the ancient starting point of the Silk Road, is well known.

I am here in Xian for the UCLG World Council, where we discuss city-to-city diplomacy, development of sustainable cities, and connectivity. Local and regional leaders from all over the world discuss local solutions to global challenges.

The Netherlands and China have long-standing economic and cultural ties with shared ambitions in fields of sustainability, technology, innovation, urban development. I am pleased to join you here at the final session of this Sino-Dutch roundtable.

It is my pleasure to note that a number of major and well known Dutch companies accepted the invitation to join this meeting, and at the same time I am happy to meet all our friends from the Chinese companies.

In these times of growing tensions and trade disputes it is my strong conviction that cooperation on city and company level is extremely important. At the local level it is often easier to identify shared objectives, to find common ground and to work pragmatically together to realize concrete results.

Next to that it is important to have the right conditions in place for businesses to flourish. Predictability of rules and regulations and service provision. That is what you may expect from us, local and regional governments. The Association of Netherlands Municipalities, VNG International, supports the strengthening of local governments worldwide in this matter.

Traditionally, the Chinese community is well integrated in the city and we value the presence of a vibrant Chinatown in The Hague.

The Hague is a gateway for business and Hague offers direct access to key European markets, thanks to its strategic location near Rotterdam Port and Schiphol Airport.
We are home to over 300 international companies, including many Asian and Chinese firms, the city offers a welcoming, well-established investment environment.
Chinese companies looking to establish a base in Europe will find The Hague an ideal launchpad, international, business-friendly, and globally connected.

We have our own agency to assist foreign companies to settle down in the Hague and to assist them. Together with NFIA, I am very happy Arnoud Besseling is also present here today, we assure the best services for Chinese companies in the Netherlands and I welcome you all in the Netherlands and the Hague.

I am extremely pleased that I could kick off my visit with this  discussion with you all. It took me 16 hours to get here, but it feels worthwhile already.

I thank the Xian leadership again for its commitment to host this Sino Dutch Round Table and I would like to also thank the representatives of Philips – especially CEO mrs. Liu Ling – for the initiative for this event.

Let’s indeed empower our future cities and bridge global dreams. And as Liu told us earlier this afternoon: “Let’s write a new chapter to win win”. Thank you.