IN BRIEF
labo
band
Theme afternoon
on Italy attracted
400 visitors
'Modern art
travels East-West'
Internationaliz-
ation by
information
'Doing
business
internationally'
Still eating
potatoes
Money '90
Issue 7/Sep. 21, 1990
Some time ago Rabobank
Nederland in Utrecht organized
a theme afternoon on Italy for
internationally active business
relations of the member banks.
Almost 400 customers attended
the meeting, together with their
account managers.
Italy is the fifth most important
export country for the Nether-
lands, with a total export vol
ume of almost Dfl. 15 billion in
1989. As against this, imports
amount to around Dfl. 7 billion.
The programme for the theme
afternoon began with three
talks by Dutchmen working in
Italy. They spoke about their
own experiences. After the
break, the head of the represen
tatie office in Milan, Cees Jan
sen, gave a detailed explana-
tion of the services which his of
fice can offer Dutch customers.
After a panel discussion, there
was time for informal contacts
during an Italian buffet. Young
footballers distributed competi-
tion timetables for the World
Cup football matches, which are
now of course past history.
The exhibition 'Modern art
travels East-West' was on
show in the Empress Place Mu
seum in Singapore from 10 to
27 August. It comprised two
hundred modern works of art
from the collections of nine-
teen companies from the Neth-
erlands and Singapore. Rabo
bank Nederland's Head Offices
in Utrecht and Eindhoven lent
eight works for this event.
The exhibition formed part of
the celebrations marking the
25th anniversary of the Repub-
lic of Singapore. Many compa
nies in Singapore collect art. In
addition, a number of com
panies present an annual award
to a very promising artist.
The exhibition was on view in
the Rotterdam World Trade
Center in the Netherlands earlier
For business customers
who do business beyond the
frontiers of the Netherlands it is
important to be well informed
about the country in which they
intend to be active. In addition
to the official bodies for export
promotion and trade organiz-
ations, banks too have a wealth
of in-house knowledge.
Maarten van den Bergh of Inter
national Marketing: 'For exam-
ple, Rabobank publishes country
studies. These outline the pic
ture of a country's economie
structure. They also deal with
the developments in the
various market sectors and the
international trade of the country
concerned. These studies are
called 'A view of...'. Italy, Spain,
West Germany, the United
States, Belgium and South-East
Asia have been covered so far.
We also publish brochures on
'Doing business with...'. In
these you find information about
the financial aspects of doing
business with the various coun-
tries. And in addition the month-
ly international trade report
'Import-Export' presents brief
sketches of countries in which
importers and exporters are in-
terested. It also contains a fea
ture entitled 'Trade Promotion',
which reports on the actual import
and export opportunities for each
country and branch of industry.'
With all these facts and figures,
Rabobank endeavours to keep its
internationally oriented custom
ers as well informed as possible.
this year. It was organized by
the Foundation for Enterprise
and Art (Stichting Onderneming
Kunst), which aims to stimu-
late the interest of business
and industry in the visual arts.
The new edition of the bro
chure 'Doing business interna
tionally' recently appeared in
the series of publications on
the common theme of 'Rabo
bank: your partner in busi
ness'. Among other things, the
brochure devotes attention to
the foreign business of Rabo
bank and Europe 1992.
The foreign offices, with their
Dutch Desks, have been given
much more emphasis in this re
print. The last page contains a
list of the foreign offices' ad-
dresses. Many subjects with
which an importer or exporter
may be confronted come up for
discussion. For example, the
attention of intending exporters
is drawn to the Rabobank Ex
port Plan and to the Export Ac
counts for France and Italy. Prod
ucts such as the Rabobank
Payment Diskette and the Inter-
This year Rabobank Neder
land will participate, through
its Hong Kong Branch, in the
Money '90 Exhibition, from 4
till 7 October 1990. Rabobank
Asia Ltd. and Rabo Merchant
Bank NV will also participate
in this exhibition.
The annual Plong Kong Money
Show is one of the rare organ
ized promotions of financial
products and services in Flong
Kong. it is an ideal vehicle for
reaching thousands of corpor-
ate and private investors in the
world's leading international
money markets. It will give the
branch an opportunity to pro-
mote itself after the opening in
September. Flong Kong is, and
will continue to be an excellent
place in which to invest and do
business. Over 120 compa
nies from around the world
took part in the 1989 exhibi
tion, representing a whole
range of financial services and
investment opportunities.
Some 9,000 visitors from 35
countries were recorded, 76
per cent of whom were private
investors.
national Payment Tape are also
described. The Quick Cheque
Service operated by the New
York and London branches and
the Dusseldorf branch of ADCA-
BANK, is also dealt with. Need-
less to say, attention is also
paid to matters such as clean
and documentary payment
transactions, currency risks,
bank guarantees and the fi-
nancing of imports as well as
of exports and credit insur-
ance.
A study on 'The cultiva-
tion and processing of ware
potatoes in the EC' was pub-
lished recently. The most im
portant conclusion of the re
port is that the Netherlands,
Belgium, Northern France,
the East of England and part
of West Germany will occupy
the most important positions
on the European market for
ware potatoes in the coming
years.
The competition on the interna
tional market for ware potatoes
and potato products is increas-
ing. The demand for potato prod
ucts is rising, while the need
for fresh ware potatoes is go-
ing down. The future of potato
cultivation and processing is
partly determined by the extent
to which the industry is capable
of responding to these trends
in consumption.
