On Monday we had a big meeting at one of Holland's business institutes, the offices of VNO/NCW, the Dutch employer organization. In The Hague, opposite of the monkey mountain, the nick name for the ministry of foreign affairs, that is the building... And opposite of the ministry of agriculture. We started off with André Haspels, chief de bureau of development cooperation. Bernard Wientjes did the opening, followed by Gerda Verburg, our agric minister. Then we had speeches by Unilever, WWF, Solidaridad and Ahold. After each speech right into the debate with the 7 MPs that were present. And lively it was. And we had general lift off! No new cabinet can ignore that!
