The dinner with the Chinese Minister of Transport and his delegation
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Mr Li Shenglin, Mr Ambassador, ladies and gentlemen,
It is a pleasure for me to receive you here at this historic spot. In the second half of the seventeenth century, this lovely building in which we are dining this evening was the home of Johan de Witt, a famous Dutch statesman in a turbulent period in the history of the Netherlands. A worthy place to welcome such important guests as yourselves.
Mr Li Shenglin, I consider it a great honour that you are visiting my country. It offers you the opportunity to see with your own eyes the state of affairs regarding the port of Rotterdam. Your presence here gives us the chance to further bolster the already strong relations between our two countries.
China and the Netherlands; in geographical terms no two countries could be much further apart. China, on one side of the earth, is a world power. The Netherlands, on the other side, is modest in size but big in trade, logistics and foreign investments. Where culture and customs are concerned, we also differ from one another in many ways.
But there is no need to be identical in order to enjoy doing business with each other. The symbol of China is the mighty dragon, and the Netherlands has its courageous lion. Both are powerful symbols. According to Chinese mythology, the lion is one of the seven sons of the dragon. Looked at in this way, we are, after all, related.
We suit each other well. In my own country this is demonstrated by the Chinese communities that were established at the beginning of the last century in our large cities. For example, Rotterdam, the twin city of Shanghai, has a large Chinatown. Your countrymen live there in perfect harmony with other residents of Rotterdam. Mutual respect prevails. Here in The Hague we also have a Chinatown. Every year, The Hague is the venue for a grand, national celebration of the Chinese New Year.
Trade contacts between China and the Netherlands go all the way back to 1729. In that year, the first Dutch trading ship berthed in Guangzhou. From that time onwards, increasingly more Dutch companies have gradually become established in China. Today, most Dutch multinationals have an office in your country.
China is one of the major and largest economies in the world. According to the experts, economic recovery from the current global recession will begin in your country. Only then will large markets like Europe be able to recover fully. Your country thus has a great influence on other countries, and definitely on the Netherlands. Even more so, especially on the Netherlands, with its open economy and the port of Rotterdam as the entry port of Europe. The growth of the port of Rotterdam in recent years is largely due to the flow of goods from your country.
The Netherlands also has to offer China a great deal. We have the most important and the largest port in Europe and moreover, the best hinterland links. This is the place to be if you want your goods to flow on to finely meshed networks. Today you were able to see for yourselves how in Rotterdam we are developing maritime transport and inland shipping, also in the fields of safety and planning. The Netherlands is expressly investing in good door-to-door connections.
Tomorrow you will be visiting the traffic control centre in Utrecht where you will be able to gain insight into a technological approach to the problem of road traffic congestion.
Broadly put, we are interested in your large-scale work, while you are interested in our high-quality infrastructure.
We are living in turbulent times. An economic storm is battering the world, overturning companies and institutions that we thought could never fall. This storm is not leaving our countries untouched. We too are experiencing hard times. That is why it is a good thing to examine the importance of exchanges between China and the Netherlands. Exchanges from which both our countries can draw economic strength. We need this strength now more than ever to retain our competitive positions in these difficult times.
We cannot always control everything. The storm will have to play itself out. But we do not have to wait in suffering until the storm passes. We can arm ourselves against it as best we can. The reflex action in a storm is to secure your home as far as possible against the outside world. But the traditional wisdom of the countryside tells us that it can sometimes be sensible to open your windows a crack so that they do not shatter from the force of the wind outside.
I believe that our countries are well capable of beating this crisis. But that does not mean we will be untroubled by it. I am not saying it will be easy. But I ám saying to you that if we are open to one another and allow each other to profit from our mutual strengths, we will emerge from these difficult times stronger than ever.
I am already looking forward to my visit to your country in September. I am very curious about developments in your country in the fields of maritime cooperation, developments at your ports, logistics and also aviation and airport developments. During that visit our ministries will have the opportunity to make agreements about cooperation that will strengthen the competitive positions of both our countries with the signing of a revised MoU. We have done the preparatory work over the past days during, among other things, the meeting of the Joint Steering Committee earlier today.
Mr Li Shenglin, Mr Ambassador, ladies and gentlemen,
Now is not the time to do business. It is, however, a good time to savour the impressions of the day, so that during this meal we can exchange ideas with each other in a pleasant atmosphere and get to know one another better. Once again, I would like to say how much I am looking forward to visiting your country in September. I am also looking forward to discussing matters further with you there in the same excellent ambience as we have here today.
I would now ask you to join me in raising your glasses in a toast to our guests from China (glas heffen), and to the exciting interactions between the Chinese dragon and the Dutch lion!