Dutch Minister Ploumen addresses MSM’s international students as future ambassadors and partners
“Business relationships and cooperation are built on people,” ... “From a business perspective, I believe that the fond memories that you, MsM students, will keep of your time in the Netherlands will be profitable in promoting business opportunities and developing relationships between your countries and ours.” These words were spoken by the Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Mrs. Lilianne Ploumen during a visit to Maastricht School of Management on 2 April 2014.
Minister Ploumen addressed a full auditorium of 31 students from the Executive MBA program in Energy Management jointly offered by the Maastricht School of Management (MsM) and ADA University in Azerbaijan, 59 students of the full-time MBA program in Maastricht, 33 visiting students from the international MBA program offered in collaboration with CENTRUM Católica Business School in Peru, and faculty members, stakeholders and invited guests, including Mayor of Maastricht Onno Hoes, Provincial Deputy Bert Kersten, UM Rector Magnificus Luc Soete and MUSBE Dean Philippe Vergauwen. She was keen to emphasize the crucial role that MsM graduates could play in their own countries, not only as skilled professionals but as ambassadors and partners for the Netherlands.
In a brief presentation of the institute, MsM Dean Director, Prof. Wim Naudé, showed that its vision and its areas of expertise correspond to a large extent to Mrs. Ploumen’s portfolio. “We are the business school in the Netherlands whose activities are most aligned with the objectives of the Dutch Ministry for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation,” he said.
He illustrated his point with a few concrete examples from MsM’s projects in water management in Egypt and Palestine, various women entrepreneurship programs, entrepreneurship and governance studies in fragile states, and agri-business research in Africa.
Acknowledging Minister Ploumen’s Maastricht origins and personal bond with the region, Prof. Naudé also shared MsM’s ambition to be a player in the economic development of the Limburg province and to be a business hub linking the province to the international business community. An important milestone in this regard will be MsM’s upcoming integration within Maastricht University, a process which has been moving very successfully, and which Prof. Naudé ascribed in his presentation to a “meeting of minds between the people of MsM and of the UM”.
Also stressing that the excellent co-operation between MsM and UM over the past 20 months has been about people, the Dean of the Maastricht University School of Business and Economics (MUSBE), Prof. Philip Vergauwen, confirmed Prof. Naudé’s words and expressed his trust that a solid partnership is in the making thanks to the honest and constructive relationship between the negotiating partners at MsM and UM.
During the preparation phase for her visit, Minister Ploumen had expressed the special wish to address the MsM audience, and especially the students, in a livelier and more interactive way than a formal speech would normally allow for.
The resulting Q & A session between the Minister and several students touched upon various aspects of international trade and development cooperation in general, but also on more specific matters such as human rights, cooperation in higher education in South America, women empowerment and entrepreneurship, agribusiness in Africa and India, and the potential economic opportunities for South Limburg brought by the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) presently being negotiated between the European Union and the United States.
In her extensive replies, Minister Ploumen made it a point to underline that her ministry’s portfolio, although focusing on the four main themes of Dutch development cooperation, namely policy of security and the rule of law, water management, food security and sexual and reproductive health and rights, did not narrow down its scope exclusively to these issues.
She repeatedly stressed the need for the Netherlands to identify new opportunities and new markets and to work towards inclusive global economic growth. She also expressed the wish for the Netherlands to establish new strategic partnerships that would help it to better address more political issues in certain regions of the world. “We are looking for allies in this endeavour and this is where you and your countries can help us,” she told the students.
“Together with like-minded partners in trade and development, we can reach out together to less like-minded governments and advocate for more sustainable ways of doing business.”
On this promising note, Prof. Naudé thanked Minister Ploumen for her visit and reiterated his confidence in MsM’s students. “Watch this space, you’ll be proud,” he said. “We at MsM share the same vision and the same passion as your Ministry.”
Further reading
Non-farm entrepreneurship in Africa: telling facts from myths
Promoting women’s entrepreneurship: which policies and practices work best?
Maastricht School of Management (MsM) leads Palestinian-Dutch Academic Consortium in Water Management
Joining forces: Maastricht School of Management and Maastricht University
Executive program on Women Entrepreneurship Promotion (WEP)
Please check our Facebook and Flickr pages for all event pictures and click here for a video compilation of the event.
