Amsterdam mayor rebukes criticism that erotic center at the RAI will be bad for business

The arrival of an erotic center by the RAI in Amsterdam could “possibly” prove beneficial for the nearby companies' business climate. This was said by Amsterdam city mayor Femke Halsema during the council debate on Thursday. This was her response to a report by Het Parool and questions from the council.

The newspaper reported on Wednesday that the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management is concerned that the center will make it less attractive for international companies to establish themselves in the Zuidas area.

Halsema reasoned that more foreign companies are located in the city center, at a maximum distance of 1 kilometer from the Wallen area, which includes the Red Light District, than in the Zuidas, which is also about 1 kilometer away from where the erotic center would be located.

The mayor also added that more new companies established themselves in the city center in the past five years than in the Zuidas.

“You can conclude from this that a foreign company currently thinks the Wallen and the surrounding area is a more interesting location for their business than the Zuidas,” the mayor said.

She also joked that “we know that during international congresses, a good amount of business is done” in the Wallen area. She said that it is, therefore, probably not scientifically tenable to state that there is "a negative relationship between the international business climate and prostitution.”

Various opposition parties also demanded to know who would pay for the costs of the erotic center: the government or the municipality. Het Parool reported that there have been internal discussions within the ministry regarding this. The center falls within the working area of ​​Zuidasdok, a major infrastructure project of the national government and the municipality.

The mayor repeated her promise that the municipality would cover any additional costs associated with the construction of the center. “So the government does not need to have these concerns at this moment.” She also emphasized that it is not yet clear whether there are any extra costs.