Ecorys accompanies Dutch Prime Minister on the Netherlands Trade Mission to India

In the end of May, Ecorys was represented on the Trade Mission to India by Marten van den Bossche and Siebe Stellingwerf. They accompanied the Dutch prime-minister Mark Rutte, and ministers Sigrid Kaag, Carola Schouten, Cora van Nieuwenhuizen and Bruno Bruins, together with one hundred companies to Delhi and Bangalore. Ecorys holds an office in New Delhi, which delivers specific services in the field of Urban Development such as Economic Impact Assessments, Technical Assistance and Monitoring & Evaluation. In addition, Ecorys is growing her portfolio in Transport, Infrastructure and Health care.

The Ecorys vision on Smart Cities was presented by Marten van den Bossche to a distinguished group of national and international experts and government officials. Applying the Smart Cities concept in India means something different for each and every Indian city (300 Indian cities now have more than 1 million inhabitants). India faces great challenges in future urbanisation, with a population that is now still largely rural. The urbanisation development faces important issues like housing, waste issues, water issues, mobility, employment and quality of life. Solutions are to be city-specific, smartly combining state-of-art solutions with affordability and usefulness in the specific Indian context. On the trade mission Marten and Siebe have shown Ecorys’ added value (optimizing societal revenues and impacts from Smart City development programmes) in supporting local, state and national governments in policy development and implementation of Smart Cities project pipelines, as an important opportunity to modernize cities in India.