The Netherlands must uphold digital leadership in the coming years. This call for the next coalition government was presented by a broad coalition of organisations, companies, civil society organisations and research institutions at the annual ECP conference. Open State Foundation supports this call.
The manifesto states that digitization has a great impact on daily lives, labour and employment, science, business, security and democracy. And the biggest changes are yet to come. The past has shown that countries that lead the way as a model country, are better able to capitalize on the chances of such transformations and at the same time deal with any negative consequences. The next government will have to invest in policies, resources and governance.
In the Manifesto the organisations advocate for more investment in training and the development of new knowledge, shared ambitions in the field of digital technology in the areas of health, mobility, energy, education and urban environment, with special attention to cyber security, privacy and open data for the realisation of social and economic expectations. Additional resources should be made available and regulations should not frustrate these sectors, but rather facilitate them.
The political responsibility for digital innovation is at the moment too fragmented, which makes society miss opportunities in these areas. A ministerial digitisation top team, for example in the form of a separate digital sub ministerial council, including a senior official for cyber security, must make connections and take leadership to put the future digital transformation to our hand, to seize opportunities and monitoring safety and organize where necessary.
The manifesto was initially signed by:
1. Frits van Bruggen, hoofddirecteur ANWB
2. Marcel Krom, voorzitter CIO platform
3. Bas Eenhoorn, Digicommissaris
4. Tineke Netelenbos, voorzitter ECP
5. Medy van der Laan, voorzitter Energie Nederland
6. Ineke Dezentjé, voorzitter FME
7. Herna Verhagen, CEO PostNL, opsteller rapport ‘Nederland Digitaal droge voeten’
8. Paul Smits, CFO en voorzitter Digitaliseringsboard, Havenbedrijf Rotterdam
9. Bertho Eckhardt, voorzitter Koninklijk Nederlands Vervoer
10. José van Dijck, president Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen
11. Leon Faassen, voorzitter ad interim LTO-Nederland
12. Michaël van Straalen, voorzitter MKB-Nederland
13. Lotte de Bruijn, directeur Nederland ICT
14. Peter Stadhouders, directeur Nederlands Uitgevers Verbond
15. Chris Buijink, voorzitter Nederlandse Vereniging van Banken
16. Yvonne van Rooy, voorzitter Nederlandse Vereniging van Ziekenhuizen
17. Arjan El Fassed, directeur Open State Foundation
18. Steven van Eijck, algemeen voorzitter RAI Vereniging
19. Jos Nijhuis, president-directeur Royal Schiphol Group
20. Erik Fledderus, algemeen directeur SURF
21. Ed Nijpels, voorzitter Thuiswinkel.org
22. Paul de Krom, voorzitter TNO
23. René Penning de Vries, Boegbeeld TopTeam ICT-innovatie
24. Arthur van Dijk, voorzitter Transport en Logistiek Nederland
25. Titia Siertsema, voorzitter Uneto-VNI
26. Hans de Boer, voorzitter VNO-NCW
27. Karl Dittrich, voorzitter VSNU