The importance of international entrepreneurship in the Netherlands

Peter Cras, general director KCH

Facts

• Export (2008): $537 billion

• Most important partners: Germany 25%, Belgium 12%, France 10%.

• Import (2008): $485 billion

• Most important partners: Germany 17%, Belgium 9%, France 5%.

Facts

• Agriculture: Third largest exporting country (after U.S.A. & France)

• ± 10th largest

economy

in the World

Facts

• Open economy

• Nation with a ‘trade culture’

• Prosperous country

Facts

• More competition

• Much bigger playing field

• Who has a lot can lose a lot

• Who has a little can win a lot

The times they are a-changin’

Research/development

Production

Services

Money

People

'Swappen' over the world

Primairy conditions to stay at the top

Competent to act in a global market and motivated to compete with many others

The Dutch challenge

To keep (or regain) the ‘hunger for success’

Not to lean back and quarrel about who’s getting what of the ‘richness pie’

That’s quite a challenge

• information: any place, any time, anywhere

• the world has become the playing field• flexibility and mobility will change from “nice” to “must” for many people

Mobility: an economic necessity

Labour market and education

Labour market and education

• broaden your horizon about people and systems

• learn to understand that “your set of values” is just “one set of values”

• become “richer” as a person

• the cultural opportunities depend on the position in which the mobility takes place

““When the walls came down When the walls came down and the windows went up”and the windows went up”

Thomas Friedman in “The world is flat”

Bringing down physical and mental walls is Bringing down physical and mental walls is the start of internationalisation.the start of internationalisation.