Prince Saud bin Abdullah bin Thunayan Al-Saud, Chairman of SABIC and Joop Wijn, the Minister of Economic Affairs of The Netherlands, attended opening ceremony of SABIC Europe's new head office building in Sittard city (Limburg province), which was held on last Tuesday evening. It is a six-storey building and accommodates more than 550 employees. "This building with its unique techniques will be a tribute for the revitalization of energies and the incentive to unleash the creativities and capabilities and help enhance corporate achievements," said Joop Wijn in an address on the occasion. He focused on the already long lasting ties between Saudi Arabia and The Netherlands, especially since SABIC came to Europe, "The petrochemical industries clustered at the Chemelot complex are of great importance of the Dutch economy." Furthermore he mentioned "Saudi Arabia is The Netherlands' foremost trade partner in the Middle East. " The mission of SABIC in Europe and in that respect the establishment of the new head office in Europe was especially underlined by Frans Noteborn, CEO of SABIC Europe, "SABIC Europe has a mission to grow. This challenge and the opportunity to design and built a new European head office created the unique possibility to optimize the European business and service organization, our working methods, our IT and communication technology and did challenge the people involved to become the owner and design of their future working environment and working methods. " Other guests of honour were the CEO of SABIC, Mohamed Al-Mady; the Mayor of Sittard-Geleen, Jean Bronckers; the Governor of the province of Limburg Léon Frissen; the President of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, René van der Linden, and the CEO of SABIC Europe, Frans Noteborn. In their speeches they underlined the relationship between Saudi-Arabia and The Netherlands and the importance of having SABIC Europe headquartered in Sittard-Geleen, according to a report carried by Sabic's web-page. SABIC Europe (Sittard, The Netherlands) is a SABIC subsidiary which includes all of SABIC's activities in Europe and employs around 2,300 people. Its Head Office is in Sittard and there are production sites in Geleen (The Netherlands) and Gelsenkirchen (Germany), with a Research & Technology center in The Netherlands. The company had sales of 6.5 million metric tons of petrochemicals and a turnover of 5 billion euros in 2005. The construction of the SABIC Europe headquarters building commenced in 2004.
