Business

Borough President Adams meets with mayor of Amsterdam to talk international business

April 11, 2014 By Rob Abruzzese Brooklyn Daily Eagle
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International-Brooklyn is open for business.

In an effort to establish Brooklyn as a city that doesn’t need Manhattan to conduct its international business, Borough President Eric Adams met with the Mayor of Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan, at Borough Hall on Thursday to discuss a potential partnership between Amsterdam and this fine borough. 

“If Topeka, Kansas or Iowa can have international relationships, why can’t we?” Adams said. “We don’t have to have Manhattan filter which businesses we work with and what international relationships we must have. We can do it ourselves. We’re no longer the little brother. We have moved out, we have found our own home, and we have hung up our address. Now we are going to reach out and engage the international community.” 

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Delegations from Brooklyn and Amsterdam met together to discuss three main things — how the two cities can encourage artist collaboration, solve social problems and engage business communities.

“Amsterdam wants to be an international city, so cooperation is our main strategy,” van der Laan said. “It’s wonderful to talk business with presidents like Mr. Adams to see that we have a lot in common and can help each other.”

Adams had reached out to a number of cities in the hopes of collaborating, and Amsterdam — enthusiastic about the possibilities — was the first to respond.  

“We see developments in Brooklyn have really been positive,” van der Laan said. “We see, of course, that there are also problems. We can help each other advance opportunities and we can also help each other to solve problems.

One idea that was discussed was setting up a pen pal system between students from the two cities. Students would discuss various topics, such as bullying, to exchange ideas in an attempt to problem-solve or at least gain a better understanding of the issue.

“We found out today that Amsterdam has a bullying problem similar to ours that they are trying to address,” Adams said. “So we’d like to see what they are doing that might be different or a better idea than one we’ve been able to come up with. It’s an exchanging of ideas. By doing this, it helps to stop our children from fearing diversity and start embracing it instead.” 

Another proposition that came up was to get the chambers of commerce from each city and business owners together at the table to come up with ideas for trade possibilities.

“We want business people to get together in future meetings so it’s not just the mayor and I,” Adams said. “We want to do tangible things. We have MakerBot 3D printing, we have Brooklyn Brewery, we want to put faces like that across the table so that business people can work together.”

The two sides are going to continue to work together with the next meeting potentially taking place across the Atlantic Ocean.

“I have invited them to come to Amsterdam to give this a good follow up,” van der Laan said. “I think that both Mr. Adams and I are people that don’t just like to talk, we like to act. We both see potential here so this should work.”


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