Public Policy
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Baltimore and Rotterdam exchange visits of city officials and administrators on an ongoing basis. They trade knowledge, participate in conferences, and develop new ideas together.

Rotterdam City Hall (Photo courtesy of Rotterdam city government)

Baltimore City Hall at night. (Photo: © George Hagegeorge)

Examples of past visits:

April 2024: A delegation from The Hague visited Baltimore. The delegation included Deputy Mayor Vavier, the city’s manager of international relations, and a representative from its economic development agency. The Baltimore-Rotterdam committee assisted the Netherlands Embassy with planning the delegation’s itinerary, arranging meetings and a walking tour, and committee members accompanied the delegation during its site visits. Themes of the trip included social impact entrepreneurship; supporting small businesses, BIPOC and women entrepreneurs;community-led initiatives and urban development; public health; addressing poverty and the legacy of slavery and segregation.

April 2023: Several sets of visitors came to Baltimore during the visit of the “Stad Amsterdam” clipper ship, including Coos Santing from Impact City, a program run by The Hague’s city government. The Netherlands Embassy coordinated a Netherlands-Baltimore workshop during this visit called “Urban Dialogues,” focused on climate resilience and food resilience.

November 2021: Representatives of Maryland Department of Emergency Management (MDEM, formerly known as MEMA), traveled to the Netherlands for a flood-resilience themed trip in 2021. Netherlands Water Partnership planned this trip. Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee provided assistance.

March 2019: The “Stad Amsterdam” clipper ship returned to Baltimore with a delegation of flood resiliency experts from the Netherlands, led by Rotterdam. Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee helped the Netherlands embassy organized a workshop on the ship for experts from Baltimore, Annapolis, Chesapeake Bay, and the Netherlands. About the flood resiliency delegation

September 2017: Rotterdam alderman and then-deputy-mayor Pex Langenberg revisited Baltimore to speak about sustainable waste management and circular economy at the ISWA Congress. Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee organized a reception with Baltimore’s mayor. About the visit (article on Sister Cities International website)

March - April 2016: The “Stad Amsterdam” clipper ship returned to Baltimore. The Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA), Netherlands Embassy, and the city of Amsterdam organized a series of events on the ship. This visit was part of the first annual Light City Baltimore Festival. A delegation of smart lighting businesses, social entrepreneurs, and government officials from Amsterdam met with Baltimore-area counterparts, and NFIA provided a seminar on doing business in the Netherlands. Amsterdam smart lighting delegation visit to Baltimore

January 2015: Rotterdam alderman and then-deputy-mayor Pex Langenberg visited Baltimore. His portfolio included sustainability, and transport. Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee helped organize a day-long series of presentations on innovative and sustainable projects happening in the Baltimore area.

May 2014: A Science & Technology delegation from the Dutch Ministry of Security & Justice had meetings with several Baltimore-area organizations on topics like cybersecurity.

March 30-April 2, 2014: “Stad Amsterdam,” an authentic replica of a 19th century clipper sailing ship, visited Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. A delegation of government and economic representatives accompanied the ship, including a vice-governor. Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee helped host their visit and organize a breakfast roundtable to showcase Baltimore’s techniques for supporting entrepreneurship.

April 2010: 30 young policy advisors from the Netherlands Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations visited Washington, DC and Baltimore, Maryland. In DC, they visited government and non-governmental organizations (primarily focusing on the federal level). The purpose of the Baltimore visit was to learn more about the role of governmental and non-governmental organizations in a city, the interaction between Baltimore city and the state of Maryland, US-style democracy, and how the city handles public safety and urban renewal. They also shared information about how these topics are handled in the Netherlands. 

Baltimore hosted several meetings for the Dutch policy advisors, including this meeting about urban renewal and public safety at Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC).

Gay Legg from BRSCC led the policy advisors on a walking tour of the Westside urban renewal initiative (assisted by Kathy Robertson from BDC).