KOCHI: The relationship with the Netherlands is very important to Kerala government and the state is trying to explore cooperation in various areas of mutual interest with the Dutch, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said here on Thursday. While addressing King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands at a special meet held at Taj Malabar Hotel, the chief minister said after the visit by a team led by him to the Netherlands recently, both sides have been jointly working to take the relationship forward and formalise the cooperation.
“We are preparing Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) between Netherland’s TNO-Big Data Value Centre and International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS) and Kerala government to set up a Centre of Excellence in the Internet of Things and develop labs for smart and sustainable village projects.
Another MoU will be in sports, for technical collaboration in the field of sports development. The proposed areas of cooperation include sports medicine, international competitions, association with Dutch football and hockey associations,” said the chief minister.
He said some other key proposals were also being explored as part of Kerala-Dutch collaboration. “These include implementation of the action plan by Dutch Disaster Risk Reduction Team and a Centre of Excellence in fruits and vegetables under Indo-Dutch Action Plan at Regional Research Station,Wayanad,” he said.