21 april 2010
Albert Plesman Memorial Lecture, TU Delft Chairman Dirk Jan van den
Berg
It is of course a great pleasure to welcome you all to the Albert Plesman
Memorial Lecture here at Delft University of Technology. I would like to extend a
special welcome to Minister of Transport Camiel Eurlings, we are very happy to
have you with us here today, and of course to Peter Hartman, CEO of KLM.
Given the recent events affecting European air travel, I was very much tempted
to give my speech the title “Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust”. In retrospect I
think that would have been a rather sinister thing to do, and for a number of
reasons. First of all of course because we have a highly engaged and hardworking Minister of Transport who went to great lengths during the last few days
to get planes up in the air again. He succeeded, and I see a very happy face
sitting next to him, welcome mr. Hartman, and that is a very positive thing.
Secondly, if you look at the air transport sector in the Netherlands as well as at
all the activities related to aerospace technology and supply, you will have to
admit that we certainly do have a very vibrant, active and innovative sector. The
air transport sector’s impact on the Dutch economy is indeed quite impressive.
The cross-turnover of the air transport sector is around twelve billion euros and
about 100,000 people are employed by the air transport sector, making it a
significant factor in the Dutch economy.
Furthermore, if you look at the companies working in the area of aerospace
technology and supply, the numbers are also quite impressive indeed: a turnover
of around two million euros and about 26,000 people employed, making this a
very important sector as well. If you look at innovation, we have about ninety
companies that are active in highly innovative ways in a wide variety of activities
in air transport, aerospace technology and supply and maintenance. Then there
are also the institutes of knowledge like TU Delft and of course the technological
institutions that we have in the Netherlands: NIVR and NLR.
I think this represents a real asset for the Dutch economy. We are therefore very
pleased with the launch of the Luchtvaart Kennis Innovatie Agenda, the
knowledge and innovation agenda for aerospace, which is meant to identify a
line of continuety in the activities that we need to pursue in order to promote
innovation in this particular area. The agenda concentrates on four important
themes:
- Sustainability: dealing with fuels, sustainable aircraft, sustainable construction;
- Seamless transport: this is extremely important in order to ensure that the
transportion of persons and goods is smooth and effortless. This is also a key
issue when looking at the competetive position of a transport service. Seamless
transport is also about creating a competitive axis, which is an extremely
important issue. This is because, as I just explained, the air transport sector and
the infrastructure we have in the Netherlands are so crucially important for our
economy.
- Spin off: If you have a full-fledged airport and air transport system, added
value is created for other sectors in the economy. I spend some of my time
focusing on the developments taking place in a particular area of Amsterdam,
the Zuidas buisiness district, and it is of course of great importance that the
development of Schiphol Airport goes hand in hand with developments in that
particular area of Amsterdam. The idea is to create an airport corridor that can
offer a complete package to foreign companies wanting to set up shop here in
the Netherlands.
- Synergy:this is the topic I would like to focus on. It is extremely important to
organise innovation in aerospace technology in a vertical fashion. In other words,
to bring the companies involved in highly innovative products together with
institutes of knowledge, like TU Delft.
I am very happy that the Kennis en Innovatie Agenda also focusses on this
particular aspect. One idea I very much like in the Agenda is the idea of creating
an Aerospace Campus here in the Netherlands. This will really emphasise the
importance of the aerospace industry in the Netherlands. Our aerospace industry
is still vibrant, still very much present and still very significant. This is essential,
and we should be positive and satisfied about our own achievements in
aerospace technology, but the competition has obviously not been sitting still.
One is then always very tempted to look at far-away countries like China, and of
course a lot is happening there. In this regard I would also like to focus on
current developments in France, where the Faculty of Aerospace has been
brought together as a single entity in Toulouse. Expertise from around France is
being concentrated in the Toulouse area. An Aerospace Campus is being created
there right now. It is vital that we create something similar right here in the
Netherlands. An Aerospace Campus is essential and you will not be surprised to
hear me say that Delft is the ideal location for it.
Why might that be?
To put things more generally, we have been focusing quite a bit recently on the
issue of innovation as a pillar of our knowledge economy. The most recent event
was the publication of the Innovation Platform’s report. The appeal to address
the important issues cannot be ignored. The political landscape in the
Netherlands may change after the upcoming elections, and I very much hope
that innovation will become more of an issue of political debate than it has been
so far. It is my hope that we will not devote all of our time to the issue of
integration policy, important as it is, but that we will enter into a real political
debate on how we will keep the enonomy churning ten years from now, and
what the role of innovation and science will be. I hope that the Minister will
respond to my message, and I would like to give the floor to Peter Hartman, CEO
of KLM.