Elections: Positions on High-tech

Hezelburcht helps you on your way with an overview of the positions of the six largest parties regarding High Tech and ICT. We would like to share this! Discover the vision of each party and what this may mean for the goals and ambitions of your organization.

The parties and their visions

VVD

The VVD believes in start-ups and the opportunities they have to offer the Netherlands. Technological start-ups in particular can, according to them, make rapid growth within a short time. They want to offer start-ups the opportunity to grow into scale-ups. The VVD wants to relax the rules to bring knowledge workers to the Netherlands, create more money and space for innovation and offer start-ups better access to research and results from public knowledge institutions. They also want to improve access to innovation schemes, such as the WBSO, for start-ups and scale-ups.

In the field of digitization, the VVD wants to invest heavily in breakthrough technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing. Goal: to let the Netherlands grow and become a leader on a European scale.

Finally, the VVD wishes to make room for healthcare innovations and smart, digital solutions (eHealth, remote care), but not whether / how investments will be made in the development of these solutions.

PVV

PVV has not included any positions on ICT or High Tech in the election program.

CDA

"The future is digital," said the CDA. According to the party, the digital future offers great economic opportunities for innovative entrepreneurs and start-ups. Cooperation at European level plays an important link in this. In addition, they stimulate innovation and digitization in healthcare, from new treatment methods to new technologies to improve healthcare. They also come up with a comprehensive recovery and innovation package for investments in, among other things, digitization and innovation. For projects within these areas, the CDA wants to speed up and simplify procedures in order to achieve faster results. With co-financing from the National Growth Fund and InvestNL, SMEs, large companies, start-ups and scale-ups can help in the transition to new revenue models.

They want to turn shrinking areas into growth regions by investing heavily in the development of new, innovative economic clusters throughout the country. In the top sector policy, the emphasis will be on new key technologies for the Dutch economy, if it is up to the CDA.

D66

The party wants to invest in digital skills for everyone. This means, among other things, helping SMEs with the digital transformation, but also providing further training for employees and job seekers and increasing the training capacity for students in technology, ICT and artificial intelligence.

In addition, D66 wants to focus on key technologies that form the foundation for new applications. D66 also believes that money for tax measures such as the Innovation Box mainly benefits large profitable companies. They want to use this money more effectively to stimulate innovation so that innovative SMEs, start-ups and scale-ups can benefit from it. Investments in this start-ups and scale-ups must be made more attractive and cooperation between these companies and universities, colleges, incubators and field labs is also encouraged. D66 therefore wants to give start-ups and scale-ups extra attention. Finally, they want to offer entrepreneurs the opportunity to test new ideas on a small scale. This is also called the sandbox model.

GroenLinks

GroenLinks believes that a sustainable and modern knowledge economy needs an innovative and dynamic ICT sector. The exchange of techniques and making knowledge available are very important in this respect. That is why they are in favor of open source software and against software patents.

In addition, the party sees innovative companies in areas such as (bio) medical technology, digital technology, games, platforms and 3D printing as drivers of the economy. They want to stimulate companies that contribute to a green and fair economy by opening the Climate Fund to them and by strengthening (European) networks between innovative companies and larger companies.

SP

The SP has less concrete plans for investments in (technological) start-ups, scale-ups, or SMEs. They also seem to be more conservative with regard to digitization and technological developments. They do want to set up a "Commission-Digitization" that advises politicians on the social consequences of technological developments and makes proposals for additional civil rights in the digital age.

Do you have any questions regarding this article? Or do you want to know what subsidy opportunities are currently available for your innovation project? The Hezelburcht specialists around High Tech and ICT are happy to speak to you.