Amid great interest, the AmCham Brabant Chapter held its very first meeting on 30 June. Last year both the American Chamber of Commerce in the Netherlands and a number of US companies based in Brabant expressed an interest in a Brabant division of the AmCham. That soon became a reality and, in the wake of a dynamic launch, members are already preparing for the next meeting.

Plans for the Brabant Chapter were born during a seminar hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce together with BOM Foreign Investments in April last year. At the time over 75 representatives from American companies established in Brabant registered for the unique gathering at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven. It was the first time that the AmCham had hosted such a meeting outside of the Randstad area.

During the seminar in Eindhoven it soon became evident that US companies based in Brabant would prefer to hold meetings in ‘their own region’. With around 275 businesses, they make up over 25 percent of all foreign activity in Brabant and, when converted into the number of direct jobs, that share grows to almost 40 percent.

In the past year the AmCham and BOM further devised the plans for a Brabant Chapter, with the support of a number of well-known US companies that have made Brabant their long-term home - Philip Morris, Fluke, Banner Pharmacaps, Good Year, and FEI Company. It was soon clear that, aside from standard matters such as taxes and subsidies, American companies were also interested in current topics such as sustainable business practices. There is also a great deal of interest in the manner in which head offices in the US and the branches of the American companies in Brabant cooperate. This relates not only to co-ordinating things like employment matters, but also to how one deals with cultural differences.

As far as that is concerned, the guests at the very first AmCham Brabant Chapter meeting on 30 June were spoilt for choice, and managing director Stéphane Cordeille of the Brabant-based Thetford Europe provided an entertaining account of the differences between doing business in the US and in Europe.

His audience included dozens of representatives of US companies located in Brabant, who were welcomed at the Tias Nimbas Business School in Tilburg by chairman Amandus Lundqvist. Queen’s Commissioner Wim van de Donk of the province of North Brabant was also on the list of speakers.

Responses at the launch of the AmCham Brabant Chapter were wholly enthusiastic, with preparations already underway for the next meeting. That meeting is scheduled to be held in October at Coca-Cola in Dongen and will focus on sustainable business practices.

For more information: Bodo de Wit, tel. 088 83 111 46, e-mail bdewit@bom.nl