The Dutch knowledge system is efficient and leads to a “qualitatively good performance”. However, there still is a lot to be done in order to get the performance at a desirable level. The ministers Brinkhorst of Economic Affairs and Van der Hoeven of Education, Culture and Sciences said this with reference to research carried out by their departments.
Bottlenecks
Five bottlenecks in the “knowledge economy” should be eliminated:
- Relatively high drop-out rates
- A no more than averagely educated work force
- Relatively few graduates in exact sciences and polytechnics
- Inconsiderable investments in Research & Development
- Available knowledge is insufficiently applied in the market
Knowledge investments
Dutch investments in knowledge as a percentage of GDP have fallen sharply over the last fifteen years. Our arrears to OECD-countries are 1.8 percent (8 billion euro) on average, but compared with the European top-3 the gap is much wider. The government has already invested extra in education and innovation. Agreements are embodied in the so-called Easter-agreement. Earlier this week the research on the development of the knowledge investments has been sent to the Second Chamber.
Link
”Exploration of the knowledge investment quote” – letter to the Second Chamber