EINDHOVEN/MAASTRICHT – Last Thursday, 22 November 2012, the Expat Center Brabant and the International Service Desk Maastricht Region made their cooperation official. Now, the two parties will work together under the name of ‘Holland Expat Center South’.
The objective of the meeting is to highlight the cooperation between government, industry and research institutions, both in Noord-Brabant and Limburg, in attracting and retaining international staff. Among the invitees were HR managers, private service providers, administrators and decision makers, expats, and government employees. The program included talks by the Director of the Limburg Chamber of Commerce (Wil Houben), representatives from Brainport Development, ASML and DSM, Aldermen from Maastricht (John Aarts), Tilburg (Erik de Ridder) and Eindhoven (Joost Helms) and the Director of the Expat Center (Kris de Prins), as well as interviews with expats. The afternoon made clear that the South of Holland finds it important to create an attractive working and leisure environment for knowledge workers, students and their accompanying families. The aim is to be a magnet for this group, so that they will settle in Noord-Brabant or Limburg and make them stay in the area.Parties such as the Tax Office, IND (work permits), the Chamber of Commerce, housing agents and accountancy offices are connected to ‘Holland Expat Center South’, making the move to the Netherlands much easier.The reason for this development is, that it is more and more difficult nowadays to find qualified staff locally, especially in the high technology field.
