Our future earning capacity requires courage and decisiveness

With great enthusiasm, we have also contributed to the development of the report led by Peter Wennink. The report confirms and substantiates what we have been indicating for a longer time: safeguarding the Dutch earning capacity requires structural choices, long-term investments, and a strong national approach. Invest-NL was established to make a difference exactly in this area: by strategically deploying public resources, mobilising private investments, and helping companies scale within the domains that will shape our future.

Strengthening the Dutch earning capacity

We advocate for an economy that is innovative, sustainable, and resilient. The analysis in the report again demonstrates that the Netherlands lags behind in scaling up technology and in realizing large investment projects. This poses a risk to our economic strength, but also presents an opportunity: through targeted investments in energy and climate technology, digitalisation & AI, security, and life sciences, we can reinforce our strategic position.

The report emphasizes that a national investment institution is essential for this, an organisation capable of financing the entire chain from innovation to industrialisation, thereby enabling structural growth. This aligns seamlessly with the direction in which Invest-NL is developing.

Towards a broad national investment institution

The intended integration with Invest International marks an important first step towards a broad national investment institution, similar to Bpifrance or comparable European investment institutions. An institution that:

operates at a healthy distance from politics and the daily news,
provides stability and continuity for entrepreneurs and investors,
and accelerates societal and economic impact through clever combinations of public and private capital.

This course is not only supported by the report but also confirmed in the proposals currently under negotiation for forming a new government.

Now is the time to make choices

The Wennink Report clarifies the urgency once again: if the Netherlands wants to preserve its prosperity, strategic autonomy, and broad societal ambitions, we must show courage. This means:

addressing bottlenecks in financing more quickly;
making significant efforts in technologies where the Netherlands can make a difference worldwide;
and building the financial and institutional structure needed to realise investments effectively.

Invest-NL is ready to take a leading role in this.

Building tomorrow’s earning capacity together

Our mission remains unchanged: investing in today’s solutions and tomorrow’s earning capacity. The Wennink Report provides that mission with extra clarity and momentum.

We look forward to working together with entrepreneurs, investors, government, and knowledge institutions to further build an innovative, sustainable, and strong Dutch economy.