Meet the Northern Industry 2021 was organized by GJS Support, managed by the highly committed Ms. Greta Jager-Smits, with the support of the government of northern Netherlands province Groningen, but also of important representatives of the business environment, such as : Royal Dutch Metals Association (MetaalUnie), Dutch Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (MKB NL), NL.in Business, Frisian Export Club, Northern Export Club, in order to sustain the manufacturing sector from the northern Netherlands provinces in identifying export and investment opportunities.
Meet the Northern Industry was a pragmatic event for Match Making, identifying new collaboration channels between and inside industries and new partneships for the Dutch companies and the other participants at this event, representing Romania, Germany, Czech Republic, Vietnam etc. It took place in an unconventional, but perfectly adapted location – the old sugar factory in Groningen. Romania had the privilege of being invited in this select environment of organizations and companies and the opportunity to prove it’s abilities to be a reliable and profitable partner for the companies from the Dutch industrial sector.
Famatech’s decision to physically take part at this event came as a result of the special efforts of Ms Gabriela Rusu, President PICMIA, Vice-president FEPA-CM, in supporting the Romanian industrial companies and helping them achieve foreign awareness, but also because of the total dedication and involvement of M. Cristian Mateescu – representative of the Ministry of Economy in Hague, Head of the Economic and Trade Promotion Office in Hague. Given the fact that this was a relativly spontaneous decision, after a rapid evaluation of the opportunity, all the preparations had to be done in a short period of time. As a result, the logistics was slightly challenging, though facilitated by the possibility of online payments for transport and accomodation. Nore the customs procedures were as restrictive as we expected, given the current pandemic context. Of course, also the fact that Romania was granted free acces to this event, because of the good relations of BPCE Haga, mattered a lot. All these efforts paid off once the event had begun. Along with Famatech, in the Romanian delegation representatives from Antemie – Brașov, Agriprogress and Export Market Research also took part at Meet the Northern Industrie, Groningen.
Also, within the event, an online presentation has been organized, with Romanian companies, from different activity sectors, such as: Georgia Business Company, Plasmaterm, Radox, Haneg Water, Iulius RL, Cominco Oltenia, Totalrom, Avangarde Group Romania, FRD Center and Aateq.
We had a very promising beginning when the NPI’s – waterstorage solutions - representatives came towards us and manifested their interest in our protection bellows, supple cuffs, supple ring bellows, technical flexible connections, our services or in our different adapted solutions for various applications and industries.
Then, we started feeling the cultural differences but, with M. Mateescu’s support, we have managed to approach the other participants and we have had interesting discussions with representatives of some very interesting companies and influent organisations from the Dutch industrial sector, such as:
- - Metaalunie, World Trade Center, Dutch Export Solutions, Vn Douane Bv, Netherlands Enterprise Agency, Exportclub Noord – mostly in supporting Dutch companies and facilitating foreign trade
- - Axtra, NPI, IWC International, Intensify, Noord Nederlandse Draadindustrie, Beenen Bv – mostly in manufacturing
- - Flanders Investment&Trade, Embassy Of The Socialist Republic Of Vietnam – other countries’ representatives
For Famatech, this event meant new opportunities, both by initiating commercial relations with important organisations and companies from the Dutch industrial sector, but also by meeting wonderfull new people.
We have already included in our next year’s agenda a potential 3-4 days “Road Show” economic mission, which will involve participating at MNi 2022, but also at other Match Making events organized with the essential support of FEPA-CM and the Economic and Trade Promotion Offices in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.