Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, called on retailers to help improve sustainability and to ensure that products are ethically sourced as he reflected that “retail is undoubtedly changing very fast. If the retail landscape is changing quickly anywhere then it’s here.”
In the final session of day two of the World Retail Congress, he stressed the industry’s importance to the Dutch economy - retail is the biggest employer in the Netherlands, employing 900,000 people - while he said that the country is investing heavily in the communications infra-structure to bolster the digital economy.