The Dutch economy must change faster in order to fortify the country’s competitive strength. According to The Netherlands 2020: Back in the Top 5. The economic agenda: Innovative, International, Involving the Innovation Platform chooses a modern industry policy.

Achieving ambitious growth is challenging but essential. Dutch competitive strength is currently threatened. The economic and political balance is shifting to Asia; our gas is running out and the planet’s natural resources are being depleted. The economic crisis has a tremendous impact on citizens, government, fi nancial institutions and

companies. Moreover, costs will increase in the coming years due to factors including the ageing population, increased demand for health care and the switch to a more sustainable society.

The Netherlands has a strong foundation. We have a number of internationally solid, innovative sectors or key areas which enjoy an annual growth percentage of 3.5%. We have well-developed service industries that represents 70% of our economy. Many international corporations are based in the Netherlands and our country has a relatively high level of exports.

At the same time, we are confronted with a number of signifi cant problems: Dutch companies invest relatively little in research & development (R&D), there are very few rapidly growing companies and our culture is not adequately geared to enterprise. In addition, there is not enough focus and direction in education and research, and there are concerns about the quality of education. Plus, on average we have the shortest work week in Europe. Finally, large-scale projects rarely come to fruition anymore because we face getting tangled up in our own rules and regulations and the huge amount of bureaucracy.

The Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (Het Centraal Planbureau - CPB) anticipates an annual growth of 1¾% in GDP for 2011-2015 under a “neutral policy.” Full and successful implementation of this agenda could produce an additional 0.5% to 1% in GDP growth on top of the CPB prediction and even more in the subsequent period, bearing in mind that the effects of the measures that we propose, such as extra investments in education and research, will only manifest in economic growth in the long term. According to the Innovation Platform’s Competitive Strength study group, the path of growth anticipated by the CPB will be diffi cult to achieve on account of the impact of the long-term trends mentioned previously and the problems with the Dutch economy. Implementing our economic agenda will result in a structural fortifi cation of the economy, the result of which not only includes more certainty with respect to the short-term path of growth but also could mean even higher long-term growth than predicted.

A third of this GDP growth can be achieved by working more hours, especially seniors, ethnic minorities and women. This type of workforce participation raises us to the level of Sweden, for example, but still puts us below the US and Japan. The remaining two-thirds can be realised by increasing productivity, which puts us on the historical level of the best OECD countries.

With representatives from education, research, the corporate sector and government we have developed a vision of the future for a fundamental reinforcement of the Dutch economy in 2020: the Netherlands as an innovative, internationally-oriented and involving country.