The Netherlands has moved two places up the European Commission’s list of most innovative economies to fifth.

The only countries ahead of the Dutch are Sweden, Germany, Denmark and Finland.

The Netherlands improved its position because of the high quality of scientific research, a good working relationship between researchers and industry and a growing number of innovative small and medium-sized companies, reports Nos television.

According to economic affairs minister Henk Kamp, the Dutch deserve to be in the top five and the ranking shows ‘the Dutch economy is strong’.

The Netherlands does lag behind when it comes to investment in research and development by companies. Kamp wants to stimulate this with tax reductions, scrapping red tape and making risk capital available.