Presentation of the OECD Territorial Review of the Netherlands, The Hague, Netherlands, 24nd April, 2014. Presented by Enrique Garcilazo, David Bartolini & Isabelle Chatry from the OECD's Public Governance and Territorial Development directorate. More information on this publication can be found at www.oecd.org/gov/regional-policy/territorial-review-netherlands.htm

1. National Territorial Review of the
Netherlands
Break-out session: Cities, key pillars of the regional economy
The Hague, Netherlands
24nd April, 2014
Enrique Garcilazo, David Bartolini, Isabelle Chatry
OECD Governance and Territorial Development

2. 1. Chapter 1:
• Regional Development Trends in the Netherlands
2. Chapter 2 :
• Exploiting Policy Complementarities for Regional
Development the Netherlands
3. Chapter 3:
• Multi-level Governance Challenges in the
Netherlands
Outline

3. • Identifies strengths and weakness…
 Concentration and disparities
 Sustainability and urban structure
 Effects the global financial crisis
• …and opportunities for growth
 Functional urban areas and cities
 Innovation
 Connectivity and linkages
Outline

4.  Above average standards of living…
 GDP per capita is 6th highest in the OECD
 Labour productivity is higher than the OECD average
 High levels of education and skills
During the past decade, the Dutch small open
economy has performed well…
Challenges remain in the recovery
 Double dip
 Doubling of unemployment
• Top sector policy
• Role of cities/regions
• Subnational reforms

5. Administrative units:
12 provinces(TL3) and 403 municipalities
• 7 regions as predominantly urban
• 5 as intermediate

6. The Netherlands is a small open economy with the second
highest density of population. The regional distribution reveals…
…low levels of economic and
demographic concentration
…and low levels of regional inequality

7. A functional approach makes it possible to highlight two main discrepancies
between the administrative structure and the actual organization of the territory
Functional vs. administrative regions
Core cities vs. administrative cities
OECD functional urban area
TL3 administrative region
Rennes, France
Policies need reflect the reality of where people live and work (FUAs), as do the institutions
that design and implement such policies (an example is the provision of public services).
The review examines the subnational Dutch economy through
the lenses of functional areas in addition to administrative…

8. • The new OECD classification, developed with the
European Commission and WPTI, identifies urban
areas beyond city boundaries, as integrated labour
market areas.
• It is applied to 29 countries and identifies 1 175 urban
areas of different size: small urban, medium-sized
urban, metropolitan and large metropolitan
• It allows comparisons among the different forms that
urbanisation takes (densely populated centres and
their hinterlands, sprawling, polycentric connected
cities, etc.)
The OECD has developed a new approach to
classifying urban areas

9. OECD Functional Urban Areas (FUAs)
• There are 35 FUAs in the Netherlands
containing 75% of the population.
• The largest FUAs are located in the west
of the country and the rest amongst the
entire territory
number FUA code FUA name population number FUA code FUA name population
1 NL002 Amsterdam 2,210,410 18 NL504 Amersfoort 193,576
2 NL003 Rotterdam 1,469,110 19 NL505 Maastricht 186,104
3 NL001 The Hague 820,021 20 NL515 Venlo 184,715
4 NL004 Utrecht 714,185 21 NL507 Leiden 172,977
5 NL005 Eindhoven 693,033 22 NL016 Sittard-Geleen 168,215
6 NL007 Groningen 458,686 23 NL506 Dordrecht 150,107
7 NL008 Enschede 390,388 24 NL501 Haarlem 148,373
8 NL009 Arnhem 382,752 25 NL519 Almelo 147,135
9 NL012 Breda 333,757 26 NL020 Roosendaal 128,851
10 NL013 Nijmegen 289,165 27 NL513 Deventer 120,623
11 NL010 Heerlen 282,697 28 NL032 Middelburg 112,231
12 NL006 Tilburg 281,151 29 NL028 Bergen 110,579
13 NL503 Den Bosch 261,478 30 NL017 Delft 107,242
14 NL511 Zwolle 237,524 31 NL512 Ede 102,401
15 NL015 Leeuwarden 233,870 32 NL030 Gouda 102,383
16 NL014 Apeldoorn 232,141 33 NL018 Hilversum 100,750
17 NL514 Alkmaar 194,441 34 NL026 Alphen 79,234
35 NL029 Katwijk 59,569
total 11,415,537

10. OECD Functional Urban Areas (FUA) are
present in all Dutch regions

11. The distribution of Dutch FUA’s reveals…
…more dynamic growth in the largest FUA’s
The largest FUAs tend to be more dynamic in
terms of population growth than medium
and smaller ones.
…a balanced settlement pattern :
50% live in large MA and in MA
 50% in small and medium size FUA’s…
 The presence of a rich polycentric urban
structure across the country

12. The distribution of Dutch FUA’s and
provinces reveals…
…Dutch provinces are more balanced in their growth
contributions than the OECD average:
 No single regions contributes more than 20% to
aggregate growth
 The top 5 provinces contribute to 75% of national growth
…non-metropolitan areas are key growth drivers
 62% national of national growth is driven by non-
metropolitan regions

13. When compared to OECD regions, there is room to improve the
performance of urban areas …
…urban regions performed below OECD
standards:
In GDP per capita growth and in labour
productivity
In contrast to intermediate regions which
performed above OECD standards
…the economic premium in urban areas
and in FUAs is lower in the Netherlands:

14. There is scope for improving the performance of the largest
FUAs in the Netherlands to remain competitive globally…
 Labour productivity growth in the five largest FUAs in the Netherlands is
significantly lower than in the OECD and in the Netherlands as a whole
 GDP per capita grew at a lower rate than the national and OECD rate of growth,
 Population in contrast , surpassed the national growth rate and was close to the
OECD average rateof population growth.

15. FUAs of all sizes are key pillars for regional competiveness
The share of people living in FUAs is a key
driver of regional competiveness and growth:
 There is a strong positive relationship
between the share of population living in FUAs and
GDP per capita growth
Cities of all sizes indeed matter for overall
competitiveness.

16. Key Recommendations
1. There is a need to create a National Urban Policy Framework,
currently lacking in the Netherlands:
– Ensures that policies are aligned to the relevant economic scale,
thus improving economies of agglomeration
– Reduces fragmentation
2. Economies of agglomeration can also be enhanced by improving
connectivity between FUAs:
– Enhancing connectivity amongst the largest FUAs in the West of the
country
– Ensure that the rest of the city structure remains well connected to
each other and to the core
– Improve connectivity of cross-border labour markets and
connectivity of FUAs in the east of the country to German cities
3. Regional development strategies should build upon FUAs:
– Urban rural linkages

17. National urban policy framework
• The complex urban structure and strong
presence of a large number of cities
suggests that cities are hubs for job
creation, innovation, and economic
growth:
• critical to facilitate the achievement
of national goals with respect to
growth, inclusion and
environmental sustainability
• But many policy challenges: congestion,
high levels of pollution, social inclusion
problems, etc.
 The country lacks a more integrated strategic plan to exploit the growth potentials of
cities and co-ordinate the policies and actions between national and city level programs

18. Potential policy complementarities
Top
Sector
Infrastructure
Regional
policy
(clusters)
Urban policy
EU Structural
Funds
Cross-border
Top Sector
Infrastructure **
Regional policy
(clusters)
*** ***
Urban policy *** *** **
EU Structural Funds *** * ** **
Cross-border * ** * ** **

19. Thank you