From December 11 – 16, 2022, Chief Representative Bee Kothuis and Deputy Representative Maria Alamo participated in the second annual NBSO Americas Strategic Days, taking place in Brazil.
During the program, each of the six NBSO Americas offices and two RVO representatives hosted practical workshops on e.g., incoming and outgoing business missions, administration practices, subsidies, and support programs for Dutch entrepreneurs, and discussed multi-year strategies to tackle challenges for Netherlands businesses in the Americas for the future.
On Thursday 15th, the executives joined a reception hosted by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in Rio de Janeiro, led by Consul General Ms. Sara M. Cohen, The Dutch Consul and the NBSO representatives shared incentives and opportunities in the priority sectors for the Dutch at their respective missions. For example, energy and the transition towards renewables became a common denominator over the continent. The event was later on joined by Dutch and local companies.
Finally, the group visited the company OLX Brasil, a successful online marketplace platform. OLX Brasil is led by the Dutch CEO Andries Oudshoorn, with whom the NBSO Americas discussed challenges and opportunities for Dutch companies in Brazil and the Americas region.
NBSO Belo Horizonte (represented by Hans Blankenburgh, Luisa Rates, and Júlia Orsini) was the host office and organized a whole week of activities in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Paraty. Chris Baare and Barbara Staals joined the six offices of the Americas from the NBSO Homebase at RVO (the National Enterprise Agency) in the Hague.
We thank the organizers and the whole team:
- NBSO Belo Horizonte (organizers): Hans Blankenburgh, Luisa Rates and Júlia Orsini
- NBSO Los Angeles: Peter Post and Mylene Jankowski
- NBSO Houston: Bee Kothuis and María Alamo
- NBSO Querétaro: Steven Büter and Peter Koenderink
- NBSO Porto Alegre: Richard Posma and Lucila Almeida
- NBSO Córdoba: Antonio Scotto and Bastiaan Zwikker
- NBSO/RVO home base: Chris Baaré and Barbara Staals (and Jisse Kranen who unfortunately could not be present in person)