THE NETHERLANDS: DUTCH ECONOMY IS ONE OF THE HEALTHIEST IN EUROPE

English/Nat With unemployment in Europe at its highest level since World War Two, European Union leaders are to meet on Thursday (November 20) to see what action can be taken to reduce the E-U's 18 million (m) jobless. One economy they will be studying closely is that of the Netherlands, which has seen a decade of steady growth and stable employment. A-P-T-V takes a look at the factors which have made the Dutch economy one of the healthiest in Europe. The continual rumble of trucks entering and leaving the world's biggest port of Rotterdam is proof of Holland's healthy economy. While jobless rates on the continent have shot to their highest level since the 1930s Depression, The Netherlands has seen a decade of steady growth and high employment. The roots of the Dutch success stem from an unprecedented pact the government struck with business and the unions in 1982. In a bid to support job creation, unions froze wage demands and employers cut working hours. And to ensure workers' protection, the government went easy on welfare cuts. The switch to so-called flexi-work has produced impressive results for the Netherlands. Growth since 1991 has averaged 2.5 percent a year, outpacing that of Holland's E-U partners and the United States. In the first half of 1997, the economy grew even by 2.9 percent. Unemployment is 5.5 percent, half that of Germany and France. The Dutch have nurtured collaboration between business and labour to develop a dynamic U-S-style, flexible labour market. They have cut bureaucracy making it easier and cheaper for companies to hire, fire and move workers. On top of that they concentrate on doing business in areas where they are successful. SOUNDBITE: (English) "The main success is that we concentrate on our core business. We concentrate on our core activities, which means that we are specialists in many fields. And we can be very good at that." SUPERCAPTION: Diederik Renne, manager of Randstad Interim bureau in Rotterdam Holland has a labour-market flexibility unthinkable in most other E-U nations. Today, 38 per cent of the Dutch workforce are part timers. This compares well above Britain which is the runner-up with 22 per cent. Workers hired by the Netherlands' booming temporary employment agencies account for 3.5 percent of the labour force - double the French and German rates. In the Netherlands small and medium sized companies are extremely successful at using flexible workers and recruiting competent people from all over Europe. A good example is Palmtop, a company developing software for Psion in Hoofddorp, a town south west of Amsterdam. The company started up in 1991 with only six employees, today it has 17 young people from all over Europe working for it. The French managing director of the company is hailing the general trade culture in Holland. SOUNDBITE: (English) "The Polder model or the Dutch model, I find, is more open and less rigid than I experienced in other European countries, as in France or England. The mentalities here are much more open and encourage flexible work as a model. For a company like us, which has to be fast, opportunist and really ahead of technology all the time, it's the best possible country in Europe to work in." SUPERCAPTION: Corinne Vigreux, managing director of Palmtop, software developing company E-U leaders would like to see unemployment reduced from the current 10.6 per cent to seven per cent by 2002. They will be looking closely at the Dutch example when they meet this week in Luxembourg. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/ebee2e382ea62137936a5436dd1ae313 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork