Oregon Public Broadcasting

Governor Ted Kulongoski will spend much of this week in Europe, trying to shore up business ties. Kristian Foden-Vencil reports.

Kulongoski leaves for Amsterdam on Wednesday, where he'll visit with executives of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

While in the Netherlands he'll also talk to FEI executives -- it's a company that makes extremely high-powered microscopes. It's based in Hillsboro, but divides its work among Oregon, The Netherlands and the Czech Republic.

Kulongoski will then go on to meetings with Daimler in Stuttgart, Germany. He'll be talking about that company's decision to keep its Freightliner factory running in Portland - with 650 jobs.

Daimler will also brief the governor on its fuel cell and electric vehicle technology -- something in which the governor has proved very interested.

Kulongoski will then go to Denmark to talk to the wind energy company Vestas, which chose Portland for its U.S. headquarters in 2002. 

He is scheduled to return on Sunday.