This was Consul Café 2024!
On September 18, the Benelux Chamber of Commerce, in cooperation with the Consulate General of Belgium in Shanghai, co-hosted its annual 'Consul Café,' an event aimed at supporting Belgian students in Shanghai. In collaboration with the CG, we welcomed over 120 students from institutions like KU Leuven, UGent, and ICHEC Business School. In addition to these 120 students, we also welcomed over 20 Belgian professionals who work and live in Shanghai.
This event fosters connections among students, our consular staff, and representatives from trade offices such as Flanders Investment & Trade (FIT) , hub.brussels, and Wallonia Trade & Investment (AWEX). Belgian expats in Shanghai were also invited to this event to share their experiences working abroad.
Thanks to sponsors such as Duvel Moortgat, AB InBev APAC, KU Leuven , DaWo Law Firm Shanghai, and OBOR, the event featured special guests who prepared speaches, including Mr. Jonathan Xu, Director of Business Development at the Benelux Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, Mr. Frédéric VAN KERREBROECK, Consul for Economic and Political Affairs at the Consulate General of the Kingdom of Belgium in Shanghai, Mr. Zhou Hanmin, Standing Committee Member of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference(CPPCC), and Mr. Philippe Snel, Managing Director at DaWo Law Firm Shanghai. Among the professionals, the Chamber also invited representatives from top universities like Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Fudan University, Shanghai Foreign Language School Affiliated to SISU, and NYU Shanghai.
Both the Chamber and the Belgian Consulate emphasized the importance of academic exchanges between regions. A big shout out to our Student Ambassadors An De Rademaeker and Marnix van Oort for volunteering and helping us to connect with the students!
