Organisation - February 23, 2012
Amsterdam brings Wageningen and Beijing together
Beijing wants Wageningen UR to help establish large-scale agriculture and horticulture. Partly thanks to mayor of Amsterdam Eberhard van der Laan.
This contact has come about partly thanks to Amsterdam city council, which has longstanding links with its twin city Beijing. When Mayor Van der Laan noticed last year that Beijing needed expertise to raise food production, he phoned Dijkhuizen. This led to a visit to Bleiswijk by Guo Jinlong and now to the new agreement. The AFSG has also been asked to carry out an assignment for COFCO, a big and largely government-owned food company in Beijing.
Van der Laan was in Wageningen last week with the Amsterdam Economic Board. Amsterdam and Wageningen UR agreed to go on trade missions together in future, including to India and to South Korea.