The Netherlands must be ready for serious economic setbacks, says king

The Netherlands must ready itself for serious economic setbacks, king Willem Alexander said on Tuesday afternoon, in his official speech to mark the start of the parliamentary year.

The Dutch economy and government finances are healthy and financial buffers have been built up over the past few years which we can now benefit from, the king said. ‘Now we have to ready ourselves for the consequences of a serious economic setback, which will impact the economy and government finances in the long term,’ he said.

Much depends on how long coronavirus keeps us in its grip, he said. ‘But the recent figures and prognoses are unheard of in peace time,’ he said. ‘The economic setbacks facing our biggest European and global trading partners are in many cases even greater. For an open country like the Netherlands, with its focus on trade and exports, this is an extra complication, especially in the wake of Brexit.’

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The Netherlands must be ready for serious economic setbacks, says king - DutchNews.nl

The Netherlands must be ready for serious economic setbacks, says king

The Netherlands must ready itself for serious economic setbacks, king Willem Alexander said on Tuesday afternoon, in his official speech to  mark the start of the parliamentary year.

The Dutch economy and government finances are healthy and financial  buffers have been built up over the past few years which we can now  benefit from, the king said. ‘Now we have to ready ourselves for the  consequences of a serious economic setback, which will impact the  economy and government finances in the long term,’ he said.

Much  depends on how long coronavirus keeps us in its grip, he said. ‘But the  recent figures and prognoses are unheard of in peace time,’ he said.  The economic setbacks facing our biggest European and global trading  partners are in many cases even greater. For an open country like the  Netherlands, with its focus on trade and exports, this is an extra  complication, especially in the wake of Brexit.’
 

Read more at:   The Netherlands must be ready for serious economic setbacks, says king - DutchNews.nl

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Coronavirus strikes again: 2 new coronavirus reinfection cases: Belgium, Netherlands, Hong Kong - by Aylin Woodward and Hilary Brueck

Just hours after the world's first confirmed coronavirus reinfection case was documented in Hong Kong on Monday, researchers reported a woman in Belgium had caught the virus a second time. So, too, did Dutch virus experts, who announced an older person in the Netherlands as a third confirmed reinfection of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. 

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2 new coronavirus reinfection cases: Belgium, Netherlands, Hong Kong - Business Insider

China-Netherlands Relations:: How China Made the Netherlands Question the Free Market - by Diederik Baazil

When the Dutch government invested in home-grown chipmaker Smart Photonics this summer, it was a departure for a country with a hands-off approach to business.

A small company with big plans, Smart Photonics was struggling to attract financing to scale up production of its next-generation chips, whose applications include self-driving cars and datacenters.

Smart’s chief technology officer, said in an interview at the company’s offices outside Eindhoven, in the southern Netherlands. “The most serious interest came from Asia,” specifically Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and from China, he said.

In late June, just as it looked like Smart Photonics was about to be lured to Asia, the Dutch government stepped in with 20 million euros ($23.7 million). A similar sum came from a consortium including a government-backed agency, PhotonDelta, whose chief executive, Ewit Roos, raised the alarm at the Ministry of Economic Affairs as soon as he learned of the company’s predicament. “The government acted swiftly and decisively,” Roos said by phone.

he Dutch government says that its decision was taken to retain key technology and wasn’t driven by concerns over China. Even so, its investment was just the latest example of a more defensive economic stance that has accompanied a hardening of the country’s attitude to Beijing.

The shift has “been very noticeable, because the Netherlands has always been that kind of small, open, free-market economy that wanted nothing to be touched and everything to be open,” said Agatha Kratz, an associate director at Rhodium Group in Paris.

Beijing still regards the Netherlands as an important trade partner and investment destination, even though the Netherlands is getting “harsher” toward China, said a researcher with the government-affiliated Chinese Academy of Social Sciences who asked not to be identified due to rules for speaking with media. One reason for that change is China is becoming more competitive economically with Europe, the researcher said.

On the political front, the Netherlands angered Beijing this year by changing the name of its representation in Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province. That prompted the Chinese embassy in The Hague to request clarification from the government. Taiwan’s president pointedly tweeted her gratitude to the representation’s outgoing head.

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How China Made the Netherlands Question the Free Market - Bloomberg

The Netherlands: Top five castles in the Netherlands - by Victoria Séveno

 Countries across Europe are filled with gorgeous and historic castles, surrounded by beautiful landscapes. But, you don’t need to travel all the way to Germany or the United Kingdom to get a glimpse of some incredible castles - there are plenty right here in the Netherlands!

Here’s IamExpat’s list of the five castles and palaces in the Netherlands that are definitely worth a visit.

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Top five castles in the Netherlands

The Netherlands: Positivity in the Netherlands remains high in spite of coronavirus

Research by the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP) has shown that people in the Netherlands are still satisfied with their lives, in spite of the wide-ranging impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Positivity in the Netherlands remains high in spite of coronavirus