Yesterday Alderman of the Amsterdam city government Kasja Ollongren and Special Envoy Constantijn van Oranje received the recommendations of the workgroup City Deal Warm Welcome Talent.
Objective of the City Deal is to attract foreign entrepreneurial talent and to facilitate their living, setting up business and growing in The Netherlands. The focus is on start-ups, scale-ups and entrepreneurs in creative industries.
The City Deal was realized by the cities of Amsterdam, The Hague, Eindhoven and Groningen in collaboration with the ministries of Economic Affairs, Justice & Safety, Social Affairs & Employment, Education, Culture and Science.
StartupDelta is delighted with the recommendations of the City Deal. Shortage of highly educated staff is a substantial barrier for startups to grow and can be a reason to leave The Netherlands. Therefore this City Deal will enable startups to better recruit specialized staff from abroad.
Constantijn van Oranje, special envoy of StartupDelta: "We are involved in a global competition to recruit talented people from abroad, who are necessary for crucial functions within Dutch startups and scale-ups. Lowering the salary threshold for, for example IT-talent is an essential need of The Netherlands to be competitive. So is maintaining the '30% income tax benefit' and better regulations to pay salaries in shares and stock options".
It is important to stimulate foreign talent to come and stay in The Netherlands. StartupDelta endorses the recommendation to give the Dutch embassies abroad an active role in scouting talent by means of 'startup diplomats'.
More importantly, foreign talent interested to come and work in The Netherlands should be well received. It is very important to set up a national point of entry that will facilitate foreign talent to come to The Netherlands and to guide them to settle in.
StartupDelta is pleased about the fact that red tape is being cut and a plan for a central entry point for foreign talent is in the making. He proposed to report the next update of these developments in October this year.