Dutch - Australian Cooperation
In April 2006 the Dutch Prime Minister, Jan Peter Balkenende, and a Dutch Trade Delegation visited Australia. An important event during this visit was the Dutch-Australian Broadband Roundtable, which was attended by over 100 people. The visit also enabled valuable links to be forged in both government and business circles.
Netherlands Australia Broadband Seminar - April 2006
The Hon. Helen Coonan - Minister for Communications, IT and the Arts, Australia, Paul Budde, Mr Niek van Zutphen - Netherlands Ambassador to Australia, Mr Dr Jan Peter Balkenende - Netherlands Prime Minister.
Photo: Anya van Lit
During the event the Dutch Prime Minister and the Dutch Minister for Trade, Clemence Ross van Dorp, officially invited the then Australian Minister for Communications, Helen Coonan, to lead a similar broadband mission to the Netherlands.
This resulted in the Australian Broadband Mission to the Netherlands in the following year. In all, close to 100 people from the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand participated in the various activities during the five-day Mission, which included visits to digital media sites and FttH projects in Amsterdam, Almere and Nuenen.
In the succeeding years these missions were followed up by personal visits and contact between government officials, industries, regulators and academics.
In 2008 a representative of the Dutch national telco KPN visited Australia to explain the policies and strategies used by his company in relation to fibre access, wholesale services and, in general, how they successfully operate in an ‘open network’ market. On this occasion the Dutch Consul-General in Sydney hosted an event which was attended by representatives from the Australian telecoms industry. The Consul-General explained the Dutch consensus model, know as the ‘polder model’, aimed at bringing people together in a cooperative model.
In 2009 the Dutch Consul-General hosted a second event, this time in conjunction with the visit of Guido Bartels, chairman of Gridwise USA, and Pier Nabuurs, chairman of SmartGrid Europe, looking at trans-sector developments between the telecoms and energy industries.
Closely linked with this, and looking towards the future, will be the Dutch ‘Smart Embassy’ project in Canberra, where the Dutch Government will build the first energy-neutral embassy in the world. This project will present many opportunities for future Dutch-Australian cooperation.