King’s Commissioner Agnes Mulder wants to focus more on the Drenthe and northern economy and employment. Mulder was installed as commissioner today.
It is logical given her background that Mulder wants to place more emphasis on the economy and employment. As director of employers’ organization VNO-NCW MKB Noord and during her eleven years in the House of Representatives for the CDA, economics was always her common thread. “The point is that as a Drent you have the opportunity to get a good job and that you can support your family. And that you can live here nicely, but you do need work for that.”
According to Mulder, extra attention is needed for the manufacturing industry. “This requires long-term investment security with support from Brussels and The Hague. Because that means long-term employment for our families.” Mulder is convinced that the process now underway of linking MBO, HBO and WO (the University of the North, ed.) and the collaboration between these different types of education will bring a lot to the North, such as in Emmen where the Greenwise Campus is to be built. “But we need to further strengthen that connection with other northern campuses.”
“The ball is really in The Hague, a new cabinet must now really get these stalled files moving,” says Mulder. She hopes that there will finally be prospects for agricultural entrepreneurs.
“Housing is the basis for living here.” But apart from the fact that a new cabinet still has to solve a lot, Mulder also wants to look locally at what is needed, for example in consultation with the Broad Consultation Group for Small Villages (BODK). “And if we want to build additional housing, we can knock on the door in The Hague, but we must first show that it is possible here.”
She gained many contacts in The Hague during her period in the House of Representatives and maintained them afterwards. But she was not a state secretary, like her predecessor Jetta Klijnsma. “By the way, I was in section K, when drafting initiative laws. But not as a minister or state secretary,” laughs Mulder. “But my phone is full of people in The Hague, including ministers, and my lines through VNO-NCW SME are still there. Just like the short line with the employers’ organizations. There is also a lot of overlap between what we have to do and what ‘the association’ wants. I have seen in recent years that lobbying increasingly goes through the House of Representatives, and I know my way around there.”
How does Mulder view Friesland, which is increasingly lobbying itself in The Hague or Brussels instead of through the northern partnership SNN?
“From the Frisians’ perspective, I think it is legitimate that they look at this. What do we do alone and what do we do together? That will also be the case from Drenthe. But where you have overlap or common interests, you should certainly do it together. The conversation about this is still ongoing and I will also commit myself to that. The Hague of course looks to ‘the north’ and if you radiate division there, it will not help anyone.”
Mulder sees it as her most important task to connect. “That is sometimes in front of the camera, but usually behind it. That you ensure that the things that you find important are mutually agreed upon. Lobbying consists of many moments and you do not do them alone.”
Text continues below the photo