Interview. Mihnea Stoica (Dutch Centre): Dutch Days went beyond what any of us had initially imagined

Oana Vasiliu 26/05/2017 | 13:16

At the beginning of the month, Cluj-Napoca hosted Dutch Days, the biggest event organized so far celebrating the relations between Romania and The Netherlands. Their program included both business talks and cultural encounters in roughly equal proportions. Business Review went to this event and talked with Mihnea Stoica, the director of the Dutch Cultural and Academic Centre, to find out more about what’s behind this initiative.

Why Dutch Days in Cluj-Napoca?

There is a great number of reasons. First of all, Dutch Days is the result of the intense activity of the Dutch Cultural and Academic Centre in Cluj, which ever since its inauguration last year has been generously hosted by the Babeș-Bolyai University. The support of the Embassy of the Netherlands for the Dutch Centre in Cluj was also a very important incentive for organizing Dutch Days here. We are also closely linked to the Consulate of the Netherlands in Cluj, the support of which remains essential for us. Not to mention the various Dutch companies and NGO’s which are very active in this area and which we thought would appreciate having a yearly event that would celebrate Dutch culture. Therefore, it is fair to say that it was a common effort, which showed that Romanian-Dutch collaborations can flourish in a multitude of domains, amongst which business, culture and academics, and Cluj-Napoca was the ideal and natural host for our events.

Read also: Interview: A new cultural bridge between Romania and the Netherlands

We talked last year about the financial impact that Dutch community has in Romania. What changed within a year? Are there more Dutch companies willing to invest here?

Romania is developing into a very attractive destination for foreign investors. And we saw it with our own eyes in this one year and a half since we started our activity as a cultural center, closely connected to the business environment. The Netherlands continues to be the largest foreign investor in Romania and Dutch companies are expanding throughout the country – in Bucharest and beyond. So the trend is definitely positive. Moreover, the fact that Dutch companies took the decision to support cultural activities, Dutch Days being only one such example, is also a sign of the healthy approach they have on their role as part of the larger community.

Read also: Interview. Liviu Deceanu (Dutch Centre): Strong ties built between Romania and The Netherlands in Cluj-Napoca

How did the Dutch community find this project?

I was pleasantly surprised to see a large number of people from the Dutch community in Romania participating in our events. Moreover, we also had people coming in to Cluj from the Netherlands especially for Dutch Days, which was also a very positive sign. Their feedback was very important for us, this is why we very much appreciated their presence and took the opportunity of asking many of them what they thought of our program and events. For future editions we will strengthen our collaboration with the Dutch community in Romania, as such an event cannot be carried out without the input of those who are actually part of this community.

As an organizer of the event and also the director of the Dutch Cultural Centre here in Cluj, which are the main conclusions for this first edition of the event?

I have to say Dutch Days went beyond what any of us has initially imagined. The popularity of each of the almost twenty events exceeded our expectations – which of course represents a very positive aspect, but at the same time raises the bar for the next edition. The Dutch Cultural and Academic Centre has a solid team of specialists in various domains, such as public relations, advertising, economics, linguistics, geography, who are ready to offer their knowledge in advancing Dutch-Romanian relations, and also a very reliable team of senior year students, with a high degree of professionalism, who devote time and effort into making our events a success. We worked together very closely and the results make me feel very proud to have lead such a wonderful team.

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