Over the past years there has been a lot of discussion about admitting highly educated foreigners. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Education have been increasingly supportive of a more flexible admission of highly-needed (science) talent, while the Ministry of Justice has been adding more barriers. In the end, it was decided to have one office for international highly educated people, where they could quickly get all required documents in order to settle in the Netherlands. However, until now an employment contract was still required.
The move to drop that requirement fits in with the policy of Economic Affairs to give new fuel to the knowledge economy. A prior initiative is the so-called `growth letter' of Economic Affairs, which among other things provides extra money for small and medium-sized businesses to fund research at a hogeschool or university. Such projects have now been embedded in Minister Brinkhorst's budget plans. Economic Affairs is also pleading for a smart mix, in which knowledge institutes and entrepreneurs work together to get as much money as possible from research results. Next year Economic Affairs will make a total of 65 million euros of innovation money available.
Trans. Jeroen Latour
