Dutch Province, Reclaimed From the Sea, Seeks New Business to Bolster Economy

In 30 years, the Dutch have turned a new land mass the size of London and its suburbs into a province of 180,000 people.

But the population has grown faster than work opportunities, and Flevoland, reclaimed from the sea, is seeking new business to help its economy.

Where North Sea waves once rolled, residents of new cities now complain about graffiti, unemployment and the lack of a good disco.

The name Flevoland harks back to Roman times, and one homesick Roman wrote of the adjoining area, “It is a harsh and inhospitable place, neither land nor sea.”

Self-Made Miracle

However, the Dutch have great hopes for the land they call their self-made miracle.

The task of draining part of the Ijsselmeer--the U-shaped inlet of sea eating into the center of the Netherlands--began in the 1930s and took more than 30 years, yielding 523,000 acres of new land.

The last eastern section of the new land “fell dry” in 1957.

A building and settlement period followed, and the two new cities of Lelystad and Almere welcomed their first residents in 1967 and 1976.

The creation of Flevoland was the most ambitious project in the Netherlands’ age-old history of land reclamation, and could well be the last.

Draining Plans Shelved

The government last year shelved plans to drain a further section of the Ijsselmeer. Curbs on government spending outweighed the need for new land. And protests from ecologists about the destruction of wildlife habitat settled the matter.

In January the whole area gained provincial status, and in May the inhabitants of the newest city, Almere, celebrated the arrival of the train as an important link with the old land.

The link will later extend to Lelystad and the northern mainland city of Groningen.

Lelystad mayor Hans Gruijters believes the railway will lure more businesses to the region. “It’s psychologically and economically very important to be linked with major Dutch cities,” he said.

Concrete Cities

While orderly and well-equipped, Lelystad and Almere are concrete cities set in a featureless agricultural expanse bounded by the sea and crossed with waterways.

The monotony is broken only by the fields of bright yellow rape, a crop still in a pioneer role as it sucks up the ground water, and the cries of birds in Oostvaardersplassen, which Flevoland claims is Europe’s largest bird sanctuary.

In Lelystad, with a population of 60,000, just under 20% of the work force is jobless compared to a national unemployment rate of 14.2%.

An unemployment by-product is the city’s comparatively high crime rate.

Vandalism, Graffiti

Shopkeepers in Lelystad complain about vandalism to their property, older residents about graffiti.

Young people in the city, where more than half the inhabitants are under 30, complain about having no discotheque and only one three-screen movie theater.

Around 38% of the work force commutes, many to Amsterdam 37.5 miles to the southwest.

The province hopes its incentives of cheap housing and business subsidies, coupled with its advantages of clear air and space, will attract more business. The projected population of region is up to 315,000 by the year 2000.

Tax, Investment Subsidies

Until 1991, central and local government authorities are offering tax and investment subsidies to companies that set up in Flevoland.

The subsidies aim to attract firms from abroad and from the densely-populated Randstad area, including Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam. Recipients must create at least 10 new jobs and make some investment in real estate.