‘Dutch rudeness driving Chinese away’
Chinese investors are often treated clumsily and sometimes downright rudely by Dutch civil servants. This means the Netherlands is missing out on hundreds of millions in investments, De Telegraaf wrote yesterday.
The newspaper gave as an example the head of Chinese concern Jin Mao Group. He was “sent home like a little child last year by the Dutch consulate in Peking” to fetch a document to show he would be insured in the Netherlands.
Another rich Chinese investors group, which wanted to start a five-star hotel in Amsterdam, was immediately told which locations were not possible. These were even pointed out to the company on an Amsterdam canals boat trip.
The Europe China Foundation (ECF), which works for better trade relations between China and the Netherlands, has according to De Telegraaf “sounded the alarm on the arrogant and often shocking attitude that our country takes.”
The newspaper quotes ECF chairman Robert de Vos: “While the Dutch government invests millions on interesting companies from China in our country, the Chinese are then treated like second-class citizens.” He points out that Chinese business people do not readily show that they feel insulted or cold-shouldered, but do draw conclusions from this.
A seminar is being held in The Hague on 19 February on the problems of doing business with China, with visa and work permits the focus. It is organised by China network Guanxi.nu. Speakers are from the foreign ministry, immigration service IND and foreign investment agency NFIA.
Source: NIS News, 31 January 2008
