Our New Year’s letter

TCM NEw year letterThere’s something about it, the fresh, new beginning of the year. Abandoned pavements in the dark morning, bathed in the warm glow of the street lamps, the realization that the absence of ‘the others’ means that, behind the silent facades, they are still sleeping sound under their blankets. Empty offices whose hopeful expectations (they’re called New Year resolutions) are not yet dusted off or buried under work. Even the wetness of the past few weeks, in the form of mild rain and soggy New Year’s kisses, could not dampen our spirits. Most of us were hoping for some snow, just to complete the picture, however old we might be.

 

 

After all, this is Belgium, in a changed climate on a global scale. Austria seems to have made off with all the snow, with risk of avalanches and having to dig cars out as a result. And still we hear Peter van de Veire hoping for a polar vortex. In other words, ‘normal’ extreme winter weather. A hot topic during 2018 all the same, this global warming. Meanwhile Indonesia has been hit by tsunamis and earthquakes. “Together we must do something about it, the world is a beautiful thing but needs a lot of work”, during his ‘Dagelijkse Kost’ Jeroen Meus hums the children’s song by Lex Van Tuyl Sr. that is now more topical than ever. Last month Brussels was swamped by 65,000 environmental activists during the biggest Belgian climate march ever. We also see the growing concern for the impact on our environment in the increasing numbers of enterprises responding to the issue. Consider for example our partner Go4Circle, an umbrella organization for enterprises that are committed to the circular economy with as many as 220 members. Besides Go4Circle TCM also maintains various other partnerships with federations.

 

After all, this is Belgium, but everywhere the national frontiers are more open than ever and under great pressure. Globalization brings many opportunities and challenges, but also brings worldwide conflicts to our doorsteps. The value of our good international cooperations is abundantly clear and steers a course between Brexit, Trump’s wall, the streams of immigrants, the trade war, … . 2018 was again an intensely political year, a year in which TCM strengthened the internationals bonds with our foreign colleagues during the AGM in Argentina in May 2018.

 

After all, this is Belgium, but Europe wields the sceptre in legal affairs. Or the scales of Lady Justice. On 25 May 2018 the GDPR legislation entered into effect, with additional obligations regarding the protection of privacy and further IT adaptations as a consequence. TCM Belgium has already taken extensive measures to protect privacy (in line with the legislation of 1992 and the code of professional ethics of the national debt recovery coordinator ABR-BVI and its international equivalent FENCA), and has recently further aligned its advanced IT systems to the new directives, with the continuation of the penetration test as cherry on the cake.

 

After all, this is Belgium, and we sometimes forget that (child) poverty is present in our country too. TCM Belgium works together with many schools and makes great efforts to find solutions the amicable way. TCM also works alongside vzw De Welzijnszorg and project STOS, both of them organizations involved in the battle against (child) poverty. We also provide input to the Cabinet of Minister Crevits regarding accurate info about this sensitive problem.

 

And let’s stay in Belgium just a moment, as we hear on the news that a major client of TCM China, Alibaba, is planning to build a distribution centre in Liège. Good for the creation of many jobs, as well as being the No. 1 gateway for Chinese goods in Europe.

 

We feel a sense of gratitude as we look back over a professionally highly active 25th(!) year of TCM. Throughout the years we have always remained true to our original values (all the rest has already been seen to with a make-over), so we have not made any change this year either. Something that strikes us as self-evident, but perhaps precisely what, more than ever, sets us apart in a world that always expects more and seems to spin ever faster. 2018 was a year with many achievements IT-side, the further development and expansion of our visitors’ service which is unique in Belgium and probably anywhere else in the world, the successful conclusion of many assigned files and receiving the confidence of more than 1,960 active clients. And we would not be TCM Belgium if we did not now stick our noses (far) out, full of expectation, looking forward to 2020, when it will be our turn to host the annual congress of the worldwide TCM Group network in Brussels and allow our foreign colleagues to acquaint themselves with our country and our clients.

 

The end of the second working week of the year is in sight, and who knows perhaps our compatriots held hostage by the Austrian snow reached home safely in the time it took you to read this letter. The roads are meanwhile clogging up again, much like the arteries of many a fellow sufferer after an overdose of food, heaped up by well-intentioned aunties on many a dinner table these past few weeks.

 

In any case, the phrase “Thank God it’s Friday” applies!

Our New Year’s letter

TCM NEw year letterThere’s something about it, the fresh, new beginning of the year. Abandoned pavements in the dark morning, bathed in the warm glow of the street lamps, the realization that the absence of ‘the others’ means that, behind the silent facades, they are still sleeping sound under their blankets. Empty offices whose hopeful expectations (they’re called New Year resolutions) are not yet dusted off or buried under work. Even the wetness of the past few weeks, in the form of mild rain and soggy New Year’s kisses, could not dampen our spirits. Most of us were hoping for some snow, just to complete the picture, however old we might be.

 

 

After all, this is Belgium, in a changed climate on a global scale. Austria seems to have made off with all the snow, with risk of avalanches and having to dig cars out as a result. And still we hear Peter van de Veire hoping for a polar vortex. In other words, ‘normal’ extreme winter weather. A hot topic during 2018 all the same, this global warming. Meanwhile Indonesia has been hit by tsunamis and earthquakes. “Together we must do something about it, the world is a beautiful thing but needs a lot of work”, during his ‘Dagelijkse Kost’ Jeroen Meus hums the children’s song by Lex Van Tuyl Sr. that is now more topical than ever. Last month Brussels was swamped by 65,000 environmental activists during the biggest Belgian climate march ever. We also see the growing concern for the impact on our environment in the increasing numbers of enterprises responding to the issue. Consider for example our partner Go4Circle, an umbrella organization for enterprises that are committed to the circular economy with as many as 220 members. Besides Go4Circle TCM also maintains various other partnerships with federations.

 

After all, this is Belgium, but everywhere the national frontiers are more open than ever and under great pressure. Globalization brings many opportunities and challenges, but also brings worldwide conflicts to our doorsteps. The value of our good international cooperations is abundantly clear and steers a course between Brexit, Trump’s wall, the streams of immigrants, the trade war, … . 2018 was again an intensely political year, a year in which TCM strengthened the internationals bonds with our foreign colleagues during the AGM in Argentina in May 2018.

 

After all, this is Belgium, but Europe wields the sceptre in legal affairs. Or the scales of Lady Justice. On 25 May 2018 the GDPR legislation entered into effect, with additional obligations regarding the protection of privacy and further IT adaptations as a consequence. TCM Belgium has already taken extensive measures to protect privacy (in line with the legislation of 1992 and the code of professional ethics of the national debt recovery coordinator ABR-BVI and its international equivalent FENCA), and has recently further aligned its advanced IT systems to the new directives, with the continuation of the penetration test as cherry on the cake.

 

After all, this is Belgium, and we sometimes forget that (child) poverty is present in our country too. TCM Belgium works together with many schools and makes great efforts to find solutions the amicable way. TCM also works alongside vzw De Welzijnszorg and project STOS, both of them organizations involved in the battle against (child) poverty. We also provide input to the Cabinet of Minister Crevits regarding accurate info about this sensitive problem.

 

And let’s stay in Belgium just a moment, as we hear on the news that a major client of TCM China, Alibaba, is planning to build a distribution centre in Liège. Good for the creation of many jobs, as well as being the No. 1 gateway for Chinese goods in Europe.

 

We feel a sense of gratitude as we look back over a professionally highly active 25th(!) year of TCM. Throughout the years we have always remained true to our original values (all the rest has already been seen to with a make-over), so we have not made any change this year either. Something that strikes us as self-evident, but perhaps precisely what, more than ever, sets us apart in a world that always expects more and seems to spin ever faster. 2018 was a year with many achievements IT-side, the further development and expansion of our visitors’ service which is unique in Belgium and probably anywhere else in the world, the successful conclusion of many assigned files and receiving the confidence of more than 1,960 active clients. And we would not be TCM Belgium if we did not now stick our noses (far) out, full of expectation, looking forward to 2020, when it will be our turn to host the annual congress of the worldwide TCM Group network in Brussels and allow our foreign colleagues to acquaint themselves with our country and our clients.

 

The end of the second working week of the year is in sight, and who knows perhaps our compatriots held hostage by the Austrian snow reached home safely in the time it took you to read this letter. The roads are meanwhile clogging up again, much like the arteries of many a fellow sufferer after an overdose of food, heaped up by well-intentioned aunties on many a dinner table these past few weeks.

 

In any case, the phrase “Thank God it’s Friday” applies!

 

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Don’t wait another second – collect your money

Focus on your business, we’ll take care of your outstanding payments. Contact us to find out more.