The seven member Belgian business delegation from Brussels that visited Coimbatore on Saturday to interact with local industrialists and students showed interest in joining hands with the textile city, which was selected to be part of the first phase for the smart city project.

The team which was here to visit three cities including Kochi, Coimbatore and Chennai shared how important was it for both Coimbatore and Brussels to collaborate for the upcoming smart city projects.

At an interactive session organised by the PSG Institute of Management, Belgian ambassador Jan Luykx said that Coimbatore and Belgium had lot of things in common like industrial climate, auto component industries and manufacturing equipment.

He also added how Belgium can be a place for management studies as the programmes were offered in English. “We even have scholarships in many of the educational institutions for both undergraduate and post graduate level,” he said.

Attending another interaction with industrialists organised by the Coimbatore chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industries at the same venue later, Luykx also talked about the opportunities for Indian companies to expand in Belgium.

Bart De Groof, Consul General of the Consulate General of Belgium said that by matching the technologies and solutions of Belgian companies with cities like Coimbatore that are to become more integrated and citizenoriented, innovative solutions and fruitful collaborations could be possible.

The delegation met representatives from Indian industries sector where important solution based ideas were discussed. Local companies from Coimbatore also discussed partnership opportunities in the areas of technology driven governance, infrastructure and software development.

Organisations part of this delegation included Credendo Group (Export Credit Agency), Famoco (Android based NFC devices), Macq (Electronic and Computing-Processing Solutions), Real Impact Analytics (Smart City Analytics Applications), Keselec Schreder (Outdoor Lighting Solutions), Tractebel (Engineering Solutions in Energy, Infrastructure) and Brussels Invest and Export (Investment Agency).

From the Coimbatore industry, organisations including KGiSL limited, Salzer Electronics, MindSpark Technologies, Angler Technologies, Kondass Automation amd Nizan Robotics met with the delegation.