The Netherlands is looking to expand its cooperation with Tamil Nadu in the areas of water management, agriculture, urban planning and mobility among others, Marten van den Berg, Ambassador of the Netherlands to India, said.
He was in Chennai to announce the appointment of Gopal Srinivasan as Honorary Consul of the Netherlands for Tamil Nadu. Mr. Srinivasan is the founder, chairman and managing director of TVS Capital Funds.
They met Tamil Nadu’s Chief Secretary K. Shanmugam and Finance Secretary S. Krishnan on Wednesday to discuss the potential areas of cooperation. They will be meeting the Chief Minister on Thursday.
The Netherlands is known for its experience in all areas related to water management. The Netherlands can help clean polluted rivers in Chennai like the Cooum, the Adyar and the Buckingham canal and assist in making them navigable, according to a statement. They can provide tremendous expertise in water and flood management to prevent urban flooding, it added.
Mr. Berg pointed out horticulture, aerospace, life sciences and healthcare, education, tourism as other potential areas of cooperation.
There are nearly 15 Dutch companies which have a presence in Tamil Nadu like Shell Business Services, Randstad, Stahl India, Paques B.V., among others and an equal number of Tamil Nadu-based companies that have invested in sectors like information technology, agro-food and textiles in the Netherlands.
Mr. Srinivasan said he was hopeful of taking the Netherlands-Tamil Nadu relations to much greater heights, mainly in the areas of MSME business, education and water reliance, and pointed out the State’s long association with the Dutch.
Tamil Nadu and the Netherlands have historical ties dating back to over 400 years when the Dutch merchants set up trading posts in Pulicat and Sadras, both of which lie close to Chennai. The Tamil Nadu Archives contains over 300,000 documents in the Dutch language and around 90,000 of these original documents were laminated and digitalized with the help of the Netherlands National Archives, according to a release.
