Last week, the Dutch ICT-weekly ‘Automatiseringsgids’ quoted Dutch Minister for Economic Affairs (Mr. Laurens-Jan Brinckhorst) as he said that creative industries offer a chance for Dutch business. In particular, Minister Brinckhorst mentioned design and the games industry. He signalled three problems that need to be addressed:

1. Creative industries are highly ‘individualized’ (a lot of small-scale entrepreneurs and little organization among those entrepreneurs). The creative industries need to get organized in order to attract (more) political attention.
2. There is a rather rigid divide between artistic, non-commercial creative industries and the more commercially oriented creative industries. There is too little exchange of ideas between these two groups.
3. The Dutch are not keen on rewarding excellence. In the egalitarian Dutch system, innovation is not stimulated enough.