Crown Princess Maxima was in Utrecht Thursday for the general meeting of Rabobank on “Importance and Challenges of Development Banking.” The bank, which focuses on agriculture, serves developing nations in Latin America, Asia and Africa.
Maxima spoke about Rabobank’s successes at the meeting.
“I would like to congratulate and encourage Rabobank in the role that you play to make this happen in many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. You will make it possible to experience sustainability and rural development should be shared between many people in different situations. That creates alongside economic growth and reduce hunger and poverty also a relationship between people.”
The Crown Princess compared the needs of the third world to the way the Netherlands was over a hundred years ago.
“The Netherlands, and the whole agricultural sector, was in extreme poverty between 1882…. [t]his agricultural depression came at a time when social unrest was already high. Since then, public and private investment in agriculture to ensure a higher food production in the Netherlands and prosperity in rural areas.
“Today, the situation in many poor countries like the Netherlands when: poverty, lack of investment and lack of technological opportunities to increase production. Since the fifties, the grain on the world market steadily declined. This world has contributed to a structural reduction of investment in the agricultural sector. In many parts of the world, the situation in rural areas has not improved: 70% of the poorest live in rural areas and many of them can not or barely in their own food needs.”
Maxima reminded the audience of 1200 attendants of how they are connected to those in poorer nations.
“The quality and availability of almost all products you purchase will depend on farmers in distant countries. Your cup of coffee, sugar cube, the chocolates, tropical fruit salad or your clothes of cotton: It connects us with people all over the world.”
Lastly, the Princess spoke of how Rabobank brings together the world.
“[W]hat binds them is the desire for progress, to escape from a vicious circle of poverty and lack of opportunities. Your commitment over so many decades, shows us that, as in 1896, the rural development in the world a matter of shared self is.”
A former banker, Crown Princess Maxima works on behalf of the United Nations with microfinancing issues in the developing world.
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