Stop complaining, start explaining

“If we can’t grow in the Netherlands, we’ll grow elsewhere”, Peter Wennink recently said. The ASML CEO gave off a clear warning, prompted by the political pressure on labor immigration. ASML and other high-tech companies simply need talents from abroad to enable the growth in production and R&D required by their customers.

Wennink is by no means alone. The CEO of Huisman Equipment, Schiedam, threatened to export his business, as more and more houses were built around it and people started to complain about the industrial noise. Nearfield Instruments, a scale-up from Rotterdam, can’t find space for production, housing for expats and sufficient funding for their scaling. The firm may be forced to consider expanding elsewhere. The US and Asia are tempting such companies with big investments and tax reductions.