The Dutch Ministry of Defence encourages partner companies to report bottlenecks in the execution of projects due to the corona crisis as soon as possible so that measures can be taken. The Ministry sees little chance of bringing marine equipment projects forward, however, as was asked by Netherlands Maritime Technology.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) asked it partners to report possible problems in a letter sent to 500 companies on Thursday 9 April. The letter follows a call upon Rijkswaterstaat and the MoD by trade organisation Netherlands Maritime Technology (NMT) to speed up upcoming fleet renewal and maintenance programmes to ensure more work for maritime companies during the corona crisis.
In a response, Jurriaan Esser, spokesman for the MoD, says the ministry ‘understands the challenges facing the defence industry and its knowledge and expert institutions.’ That is why the letter was sent. ‘We urge our partners to notify us of their challenges and bottlenecks at an early stage so that we can be alert to them and, where possible, take appropriate measures.’
‘Bringing large marine equipment projects forward is very difficult, however,’ he adds. ‘This has to do with the fact that the Defence Materiel Organisation’s project portfolio is so full that there is hardly any room or capacity to do so at the moment.’
