During the AGM held last May 19, the Policy Committee presented the 2010 Investors’ Agenda of Priority Points to the AmCham membership. The 2010 Priority Points are based on an AmCham membership survey on the attractiveness of the Netherlands for foreign investors – an initiative of the Policy Committee in Q1 of 2010. The 2010 Priority Points - AmCham’s policy suggestions to the Netherlands’ Government to improve the investment climate in the country – were distilled from the feedback received from the survey.
Based on the survey results, AmCham recommends three broad measures for creating a healthier environment for foreign investors:
A. Support labor flexibility & employability
Employment protection legislation - notably for permanent contracts - remains complex and strict by international comparison (noted repeatedly by the OECD). This restricts the resilience of the Dutch economy as it gives employers little scope to adjust employment level to economic conditions. It also seriously inhibits innovative start-ups in their early growth stage. It discourages older employees to invest in their own employability. AmCham would encourage any likely employer cost savings to be reinvested in skills enhancement and education of employees to increase the employability level of the workforce.
B. Do not increase income and corporate taxation
Higher tax rates for labor and business will brake - even damage - the present brittle economic recovery. Higher income taxes will reduce labor availability in a time where greater participation is needed. OECD researchers have demonstrated that taxes on corporate profit and capital are economically the most disruptive of taxes. Stability and predictability on this front is essential to make the Netherlands more attractive as a country to invest in. The OECD recommends reducing taxes on increasingly mobile production factors such as labor and capital and to replace these with increases in consumption taxes.
C. Invest in innovation and knowledge intensification
The nation's talent pool will be the source of economic growth in an increasingly knowledge intensive economy - an economy confronted with an aging workforce. The nation can not afford to mark time. AmCham supports the Innovation Platform's agenda for increased investment in the nation's talent resulting in an effective and measurable program containing measures to increase teaching quality, more customized and made-to-measure applications in education of individuals, life-long learning, and stimulation of R&D in the country's core sectors of scientific competence.
Download the English version of the 2010 Investors' Agenda of Priority Points.
Download the Dutch version of the 2010 Investors' Agenda of Priority Points.
Netherlands Investment Climate Survey AmCham - Results.