The following is a translation of the press release that was issued by the Ministry after my meeting with Minister Frank Heemskerk in 2009 whereby I officially presented him with a copy of the Big Think Report on Trans Sector Thinking.
The Minister, on June 3rd met with Paul Budde to discuss broadband policies.
Minister Heemskerk reflected on the Dutch situation whereby the country now for close to 100% is connected to broadband. For the few rural areas not yet connected the Dutch government will soon take action to also address this situation.
The Dutch Government now will have to move to the next generation of broadband. Some countries are clearly more advanced in the roll out of this new infrastructure.
The government’s intention is to keep the new broadband developments moving forward in order for the Netherlands to stay in front of innovative applications for example in social sectors such as care, education and energy.
During the meeting Paul Budde presented a report over smart grids and other related trans sector applications. He hopes to establish fruitful cooperation between the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand and the USA
Super fast networks
In order to assist local government with their broadband strategies Minister Heemskerk on June 3 send a letter to all Dutch Local Councils to inform them bout the possibilities they have to make broadband available to all residents and businesses. If the development of fast networks stagnates local governments do have powerful tools they can use to address that situation. In special situations local councils can even financially participate in the roll out of these networks. They can also initiate demand aggregation and application development. Through active coordination they can also assist the infrastructure developers in these roll outs in order to avoid extra burdens and extra costs.
Paul Budde is seen as a one of the architects of the Australian policy where E38billion will be invested in broadband for those Australian who don’t yet have high speed Internet and with his Big Think Team has also provided reports for the Obama government.