From October 19-21, Mark Rutte, prime minister of the Netherlands, led a Dutch business delegation of 15 CEOs from companies including Shell, Gasunie, DSM, Heineken, Philips, KLM and more than 70 SMEs to Russia. Rutte met Prime Minister Putin and President Medvedev during the trip, in which a number of business cooperation deals were signed.
During a meeting with his Dutch counterpart, Vladimir Putin noted the extensive bilateral trade ties between the Netherlands and Russia, saying that Holland “is one of our leading trade and economic partners, with our bilateral trade currently standing at $58.4 billion. That is a quite decent turnover, and it has grown by another 15 percent this year. It has actually bounced back to its pre-crisis levels.”
President Medvedev expanded on Putin’s remarks during his time with Prime Minister Rutte, saying that by volume, the Netherlands was Russia’s top trade partner. Additionally he pointed out that the Netherlands is by far Russia’s main foreign investor in terms of energy infrastructure, contributing 75 percent in that area alone.
A raft of business deals were reached over the three-day trip, ranging from energy, education, technological upgrades and infrastructure improvements. These included:
• On October 21, Linxdatacenter St. Petersburg opened an international data center that expands beyond its current Moscow site to bring its services to the country’s northwest regions. The facility will be located in the Sky-Trade Business Center and will be able to serve up to 17 million customers, being able to power more than 30,000 households a day.
• Russia’s Summa Group and Dutch firm VTTI agreed to cooperate in the construction of an oil loading terminal at the port of Rotterdam, investing a combined $1 billion for the project, which will begin construction work in 2013. Rotterdam ranks second by volume after Germany as an EU destination for Russian exports, the terminal further integrating the two country’s interests in the port city.
• The prime minister of the Netherlands also attended the launch ceremony of the Netherlands Alumni Network in Russia on October 20. The alumni network was established to allow for graduates of the Presidents Program NRMTP who once studied in the Netherlands and now work in Russia to strengthen their own connections and create new networks in their current affairs.
• The prime minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Environment Melanie Schultz van Haegen also visited a flood barrier in St. Petersburg that was built by Dutch firm DHV and its Russian partners. DHV’s other Russian projects include a mobile car park for St. Petersburg, and the 'First Netherlands Russia Aviation Conference and Bilateral Cooperation Forum' which will focus on the upgrades necessary for the thirteen Russian airports in the run up to the 2018 World Cup.
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