Live!
November and December traditionally are probably the busiest months of the year. While trying to finalize our work plans, spend the last budgets and race around the clock to meet deadlines, we are also looking ahead to the coming holiday season, making plans for the new year.
I have the feeling that this year it was even busier than ever: now Covid has reached a historic low in Indonesia it feels like everyone is using this window to make up for the ‘lost’ past 1,5 years. At my residence, for instance, I’ve been hosting quite a few smaller and major events, attended by many of you. And I am very much looking forward to meeting members of the DNC, DBN and W’72 for the annual X-mas party at my home!
At the embassy, we were able to take our activities to the next level: the Erasmus Huis went live, for the first time after March 2020, with the World Press Photo Exhibition and the EH library reopened. We organize live trade missions and attend trade fairs, for instance in Sumatra. We set up live seminars and debates like the opening of WINNER and the DBN Breakfast. We deliver live key-note speeches again. We provided hundreds of students with visa so they could finally go to the Netherlands and bring our consular services to Bali… in short, we are live again! And in the meantime the last batches of in total more than 5 million Dutch-donated vaccines arrived in Indonesia as well as a major shipment of ‘Personal Medical Protection Equipment’.
Looking ahead, I sincerely hope that the COVID-19situation will remain as encouraging as it is now. I am looking forward to meeting many of you in the coming months, live! Wishing you all a healthy and happy holiday season!
