Dutch business delegation wraps up UP visit

A business delegation from the Netherlands Tuesday wrapped up their visit to Uttar Pradesh during which a Netherlands 'Trade Desk' was inaugurated in the state capital.

The two sides decided to soon sign an MoU between CSA Agriculture University, Kanpur, and Wageningen University, Netherlands, to set up a centre for excellence for potato research, an official said.

And two dairies in Noida and Meerut will be modernised with Dutch support and cooperation between Dutch Rabobank and the UP Cooperative bank was also being explored, he added.

The Dutch team also suggested to the state government "Farmer Producer Companies" and strengthening of cooperative culture to enhance quality, aggregation and value-addition of agri-products and setting up of cycle tracks in NCR, Lucknow and Agra, starting from Lucknow.

A decision was also arrived to use advanced technology offered by Dutch for road construction, energy saving street lighting and solar powered irrigation pumps and heritage lighting to be taken up by Phillips in Lucknow and Agra.

Dutch Ambassador Alphonsus Stoelinga said he was confident that business and technology cooperation with Uttar Pradesh will gradually take concrete shape for mutual benefit of both regions. "With 200 million people and a reasonable growth rate, Uttar Pradesh holds enormous potential for business cooperation and collaboration in technology upgradation," the ambassador told reporters here.

He further said that "the tremendous prospects here have been taken up by the Netherlands very seriously and it is signified by newly inaugurated Netherlands 'Trade Desk' in Lucknow".

A 20-member delegation from the Netherlands has shown interest in specific projects like agriculture, dairy, food processing and cold-chains.