Local authorities in Brabant are concerned about the likely success of government plans to keep chip machinery maker ASML in the province, local broadcaster Omroep Brabant said at the weekend.

Documents from a variety of government sources show that the shortage of qualified staff and money are the biggest obstacles, the broadcaster said.

Last March, the government said it would allocate €1.73 billion to ensure tech companies such as ASML and NXP remained in the region, after executives raised questions about the business climate and government plans to reduce the number of people coming to the Netherlands on highly skilled migrant visas.

The aim of “Project Beethoven” is to focus on strengthening education in the province, building new homes, and tackling infrastructure shortfalls.

Eindhoven and 20 of its surrounding local authorities, united in the Metropoolregio Eindhoven organisation, are putting €700 million into the plan.

However, the documents show that smaller local councils have a shortage of civil servants with the skills to put the plans into practice and that “things are not going as quickly as they would like.”

The delays are likely to last at least a year, an official from the town of Best told Omroep Brabant.

In addition, plans to build new housing also involve building schools, health services, and other provisions, and all these need to be staffed as well, he said.

“The local authorities share wide concerns about the feasibility of the Beethoven deal because of the partners’ capacities,” another document stated.

Eindhoven

Eindhoven mayor Jeroen Dijsselbloem told the broadcaster that the city itself has not been affected by the shortages but said that “there is a lack of capacity to put this into action everywhere.”

“We will continue to invest, and we will expand the organisation so that we can invest the Beethoven money,” he said.