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Business Breakfast: Opportunities for international trade and starting up a business in the Netherlands and Europe

Would you like to know more about trade opportunities with Dutch and European companies? Are you interested in how international corporate structuring can mitigate political risks to your business? Would you like to do work for Dutch companies? Are you interested in technological and economic developments in the Netherlands and Europe?

Sakeliga invites its members and other business persons to an exclusive presentation and networking opportunity with a senior delegation of Oost NL, an established development agency in the Netherlands. Oost NL is since 2018 actively developing trade relations with South African companies and have already successfully supported several trade and investment projects with local companies.

Date: Wednesday, 27 February 2019
Time: 07:30 – 12:00
Place: Sakeliga, 109 Gerhard Street, Die Hoewes, Centurion
Cost: Sakeliga members R100; Non-members R200
RSVP: diens@sakeliga.org.za

Presenters**:**

  • Bernold Kemperink, Vice-President Agri Food, Tech and Energy and Manager South African Desk at Oost NL
  • Fons de Zeeuw, Business Unit Manager International at Oost NL

More about the presenters

Bernold Kemperink

For the past 30 years Bernold Kemperink has built up extensive management experience in the establishment of new business and marketing concepts in the science and business sectors. He created office facilities and concepts for Multec Engineering. Beginning in 1995 he established Brunel Energy, which has grown to a multinational company with offices in Arnhem, Rotterdam, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Houston, Singapore, Miri (Malaysia) and Perth. In his current position at the Development Agency East Netherlands he has been responsible for all investment and international matchmaking activities since 2001. Since the beginning of 2004 he has been strongly involved in the setup of innovation clusters. In addition, he was member of the Professional Advisory Committee of the University Arnhem Nijmegen and was closely involved with the development of the Master International Business Faculty and the Bachelor IBMS Faculty. He is also strongly involved in the setup of the global service repair and return logistic community for webshops in Europe. <LinkedIn profile>

Fons de Zeeuw

Fons is an experienced manager/director who is used to working in international settings. He has been employed by organisations in the public sector, the non-profit sector and – for the longest period – the private sector (Berenschot). The common themes in the various jobs during his career are obviously international project development and international business development. In addition, he is used to acting as member of supervisory bodies, amongst others for development organisations. <LinkedIn profile>

Oost NL is a development agency in the Netherlands aimed at enhancing international trade and investment. We offer 125 experts who support companies and institutes in five premium high-tech sectors: Agri Food, High-tech Systems & Materials, Life Sciences, Cleantech and Energy and Logistics. We also invest in SME companies and start-ups with a minimum stake or loan. We have a minimum stake in 175 companies. Furthermore, we are actively involved in many EU subsidy programmes and investment funds.
East Netherlands is famous for its tech business ecosystems like Food Valley, Health Valley, Technology Valley and Logistics Valley established around the big universities. These ecosystems have a strong focus on new product development, cost saving technologies and internationalisation. We as development agency are the founders of these successful ecosystems and cluster organisations who play an important role in connecting SA companies to the right counterparts.
Since 2018 South Africa has been one of our focus countries to enhance overseas businesses. With support of our ministry of economic affairs and the provinces of Gelderland and Overijssel, who are shareholders in our agency, we support Dutch and SA companies (free of charge) in:
International knowledge transfer between the Netherlands and SA
Access to new innovations and technologies
Outsourcing Dutch activities to SA companies
Setting up business in the Netherlands
International trade, entering the European market
Information about Dutch legal, tax and financial issues, logistics and warehousing
Since the middle of 2018 we have supported many successful trade and investment projects with SA companies, including Hydroclimaponics, USN, SAB Miller, Aligne IT services, Phagespecialist, Eyegym, 360 supplements, CT-LAB, Corefocus, Bidvest Group, Eden Green, Dimension Data, Eskort and Vector f’s.
Our goal:
To meet SA companies who want to do business in the Netherlands/Europe or want to know more about setting up their business in the Netherlands (by providing them with insights about costs, taxation, legal issues like work permits, etc)
To meet SA companies who can insource activities from Dutch companies
To give insights about economic trends and developments in Europa (for instance the impact of Brexit)
To give an overview of technology developments in the fields of agrifood, e-mobility, waste and water management, life sciences, high-tech systems and materials

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