Halbe Zijlstra is no longer in the running for a job as administrator at the World Bank. The former VVD Minister says that he decided to say no thank you to the job on Monday, the Telegraaf reports.
Zijlstra was a candidate to replace Frank Heemskerk (PvdA) at the bank in Washington. Heemskerk is stepping down this summer.
Last year the Netherlands' national debt decreased by 18 billion euros, from 434 billion euros to 416 billion euros, according to the central government's annual report that was released on Wednesday. That comes down to 56.7 percent of the Netherlands gross domestic product.
With that the Netherlands closed a year with a national debt that complies with European rules for the first time since the outbreak of the financial crisis. According to European rules, a country's national debt must remain below 60 percent of GDP.
The people living around six Dutch airports joined forces to fight against what they consider the undesirable growth of aviation in the Netherlands. On Tuesday they established a national residents' council on aviation called LBBL, ANP reports.
In April airline Air France-KLM transported fewer passengers than in the same month last year, due to strikes at Air France. The French-Dutch airline transported 6.9 million passengers in April, 2.5 percent less than the over 7 million passengers transported in April 2017, RTL Nieuws reports.
At KLM the number of passengers increased by over 5 percent. But that was not enough to compensate for the nearly 9 percent decrease at Air France.
The Dutch government will not take any concrete measures to help Air France-KLM cope with the unrest on the French side of the airline, Minister Wopke Hoekstra of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Hugo de Jonge both said, in different words, on Wednesday, NU.nl reports.
ING decided to withdraw a proposed salary increase for CEO Ralph Hamers due to mass criticism from society and politicians. "We realize that we underestimated the public response in the Netherlands to this clearly sensitive issue", chairman of the supervisory board Jeroen van der Veer said in a statement on Tuesday, ANP reports.
Former PvdA State Secretary Dick Benschop will be the new CEO of Royal Schiphol Group, the board of the airport confirmed in a press release on Monday. He will succeed Jos Nijhuis on May 1st, ANP reports.
Benschop, 60, currently works at Royal Dutch Shell. Between 1998 and 2002 he was State Secretary of Foreign Affairs in the Kok II government.
Departing Schiphol CEO Jos Nijhuis is facing a storm of criticism from politicians after he said that his successor will be a man, otherwise Schiphol's board will have more women than men.
Banning cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin is unfeasible, but the Dutch government wants to regulate the trade in cryptocurrency internationally to address the improper use of these digital coins, Minister Wopke Hoekstra of Finance wrote in a letter to parliament, NU.nl reports.
Hoekstra wants to bring cryptocurrencies into an "appropriate regulatory framework" without jeopardizing the technology's potential. He wants to make sure that the conversion of cryptocurrencies into regular money does not happen under the radar, for example.
ING Bank raised the salary of CEO Ralph Hamers by more than half this year, to over 3 million euros, NOS reports. Parliamentarians are furious and demand an explanation. Minister Wopke Hoekstra of Finance is "not amused", according to newspaper AD.
New rules proposed by the European Commission could mean an end to the bonus cap for hundreds of Dutch investment firms, though the cap may still apply to companies large enough to be considered systematically important, such as banks and insurers, BNR reports.
Minister Wopke Hoekstra of Financie is looking into whether banning certain cryptocurrency exchanges is desirable and possible. He hopes to give the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, information about this in the next few weeks, AD reports.
According to Hoekstra, the government would like to ban bitcoin derived products such as binary options - where people basically gamble on whether an asset like Bitcoin will rise to a specific price, or fall below a certain amount. But he added that this must first be properly investigated.
Minister Wopke Hoekstra of Finance is looking forward to seeing what his French and German colleagues come up with in regards to cryptocurrency regulations. The French and German Finance Ministers plan to present their proposal at the G20 summit in March, RTL Z reports.
Hoekstra said that "once it is there" he will study the proposed regulations "with attention" and then "see what we will do in the Netherlands", according to the broadcaster.
Queen Maxima and Prime Minister Mark Rutte will head the Dutch delegation to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The theme for this 48th edition of the WEF, taking place from Tuesday to Thursday, is 'Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World'.
Other cabinet members taking part in the forum are Minister Halbe Zijlstra of Foreign Affairs, Minister Sigrid Kaag of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Minister Wopke Hoekstra of Finance, and Minister Bruno Bruins of Medical Care and Sport.
Minister Wopke Hoekstra of Finance warned Dutch investors about the risks involved in trading in Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies. The price of the largest cryptocurrencies plummeted last week.
The names of the Rutte III cabinet's Ministers and State Secretaries were announced on Saturday. In addition to Prime Minster Mark Rutte, there wil be 15 Ministers and eight State Secretaries. Just over a third of the new government are women. The expectation is that the Rutte III cabinet will take office on October 26th, RTL Nieuws reports.
