Dutch cuts fight
Dutch employers don't support the government's plans to cut a further 6 billion euros ($7.82 billion) in the budget for 2014, Bernard Wientjes, head of the employers' association VNO-NCW told a Dutch newspaper on Thursday.
The new round of spending cuts proposed by the government is needed to take its budget deficit to 3 percent, the limit prescribed under the European Union's financial discipline rules. However, Wientjes said he thinks this will damage the economy and lead to further cuts. He told the newspaper the economic situation is dramatic and he foresees a decade of stagnation.
Instead, he pleaded for a sell-off of the "silverware" to raise money. "We should do it completely differently. The government should make another plan and go to Brussels. They should sell ABN Amro, SNS Reaal bank, insurer ASR and the mortgage branch of ING. This will bring in many billions," he told the newspaper.
Wientjes also suggested selling 30 percent of the government share in natural gas company Gasunie and the electricity network Tennet.
Xinhua
(China Daily 06/28/2013 page11)
