Growing Costs and Regulatory Burden
According to Alexander de Jonge, third-generation director and majority owner of J. de Jonge Group in Vlaardingen, "It's becoming unbearable. The politics? They are as slow as thick manure.

My clients have trouble being sustainable because of rising energy costs, slow permits, and nitrogen rules. It just makes you insane."

J.

de Jonge Group, which was founded in 1954, designs and builds storage tanks and industrial installations in the harbour. They employ 650 people. De Jonge noted the loss of two American chemical companies leaving Rotterdam, and Shell recently slashed a biofuel plant due to a variety of factors, showing that the Netherlands is losing its competitive edge, and his company is moving to focus more on the Middle East and the United States.



Talent and Business Drain Overseas
Staffing is another burden. "We abolished vocational technical schools years ago, so now we are too short on skilled workers. It is getting harder to find workers from outside the EU.

Our goal is to have at least 40% of our revenue abroad," said De Jonge. Surveys conducted by leading business groups indicate that family firms (and many other businesses) report similar frustrations.

Other entrepreneurs have already left to conduct business elsewhere.

Cor Zuidema, who left for Dubai two years ago, now has a networking group of around 450 Dutc.