Who invests in Utrecht?

Over here you see outline of white area of 120 football fields making way for up to 27 different projects. There will be water routes, real estate projects, public transport, leisure, infrastructure, etc. This entire area has an estimated investment of 3 billion euros. The area is for two thirds owned by private companies and one third owns the city of Utrecht. That could mean that one third of the investments namely 1 billion euros is invested by government but in the end it is split up to different levels. The city of Utrecht is actually investing only about 100 or 200 million and hundreds of million are invested by a national government because our city is the fourth city of the Netherland. It has got a central position. It has got a touristical value because we have the highest church tower of Netherlands in the city. And we also have an international position because of the international transport hub that we have by Utrecht Central Station for the international trains. So this is why the governemnt is also investing.

But Europe is investing as well. They are funding solar panels on a rooftop of a platforms for the trains. They are funding the research for the pollution in the ground of the city because a 120 years ago we had a factories in the city. These factories have disappeared but they left of us with a large amount of pullution in the ground. We want to dig up a city canal. We want to dig a basements for the new buildings. We want to create a thermal energy storage system as a green thing of an energy keeping for the buildings. We want to re-model the infrastructure by means of public transport and cycling. And this green thinking, the research that is needed for the pollution in the ground, the implementation of solar panels on the rooftop of the platforms for the trains is all funded by Europe. We are very grateful for that. It is a recognition that thinking green, enviromentaly responsible and thinking about the future generation that is growing up in our city is not just an issue for the city itself but it is a general issue that is addressed by general institution namely The European Comission. So a part of these funds of 1 billion is comming from governmental funding. 200 million aproximately is the city funding. And between 600-800 million is funding by national government and also European funding.

And then there are 2 billion euros invested by the companies. Because these companies are getting more and more aware about their business card which is the enviroment arount their locations. They are not funding only their real estate but they are also funding the pieces of infrastructure, a piece of pavement, a piece of the city square, a piece of water. So the business is more and more getting aware of their possition, about their responsibility but also about their location. It is not just their building but also the public domain around the building. They are also funding the pieces of infrastructure, pieces of public domain for the city because it is their business card. And this is how they are motivated to invest up to 2 billion. But to be honest it is estimated. We do not have these funds ready yet. We still need to negotiate, to argument and to discuss over the years that people keep on be willing to invest these enormous sums of money. So we count for up to 1 billion-1,5 billion but we still need to look search, look, negotiate, address, discuss for another 1,5 billlion because that is estimation for the entire area.

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