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Greetings citizens of the Netherlands,

in the last article, I promised I will appear again, when we will have the overhaul of programs ready. Well, the circumstances force me to write another article before that - however do not worry, programs are being actively discussed. Our Minister of Finances has pulled a night shift to prepare the advanced Everyone a House!, which I have reviewed and agreed upon this morning, and once he and Minister of Defence release articles to Green Berets and Everyone a House!, we will bundle all of the new program rules together, and we will deliver the bundle to CoC to add the changes in programs to the Article 5 of the Law.



Meanwhile, other government business to mention - we have renewed MPP with our best friends forever, Canada. And we have also renewed the rental concessions with Iran. The deal will (probably) be republished in our media soon, so that we all remind ourselves the contents of the deal. Iran is still a bit colorful on the map, however all of those colors belong to their allies, so I believe they will soon manage to sort their regions out, so people who have production there (cough cough) will finally stabilize their situation. Also, for Congress Members - this means we will start sending donation laws to Iran again, to return them their porition of GDP - so get ready for increased intensity of laws, and always follow governmental requests to start such a law.

https://www.erepublik.com/en/main/law/Netherlands/217575
https://www.erepublik.com/en/main/law/Netherlands/217605



Speaking of Congress... Congress is... doing things. Two things. As President, I will comment it briefly. Personally, I am satisfied with the current method of Congress debates, as they are transparent, and I hope we will see more of that. Also, both me and members of the government gave their opinion on both discussed topics (which might or might not be different from opinion of different Congress members). As results of both these debates will have an impact on the government, we all hope they will be voted upon in the near future, and we will follow the decision of Congress on these topics.



And now the best part: responding to criticis... I mean, responding to ideas from citizens. Some of these appeared during Congress debates and personal debates as well, so I will make some comments on those:

- If any citizen wants to rent org from Netherlands, he can make a request, and it will be discussed just as the current Congress topic. As for government, we are ready to offer our support and willingness to cooperate.

- In-game taxes - I prefer them to stay at current level for now, especially since we have recently lowered the Work Tax due to my initiative. If the next two governments operate with the budget similar to mine and Shawtyl0w's (= "big budget"), and the Work per Manager costs will grow as they have grown for the past months, it will be a clear sign that further in-game tax reductions can be done, as the state budget is healthy enough to survive it, and producers will need help again, as the effect of previous tax reduction will dissipate. But for now, I personally see no need for changes there.

- Support of company owners - we support many modules, however there has been a remark that there is no program designated specifically for company owners. As company owner, I of course would welcome something like this ( 😛 ), however... the problem is, that building new companies is generaly advisable during Black Friday (as there are sales), and Black Friday only comes once per year. Previous year, the government tried to offer some help during Black Friday, but as the budget was not prepared for such an event in advance, the help was limited.
That's why I am considering an idea to create "Black Friday Fund" (abbreviation BFF), where each government would be obliged to put atleast 50k cc from its budget to BFF, and BFF would be used during Black Friday to support our citizens in building factories (under rules similar to other programs). Technically, as that would be Government Program, no voting is needed according to the Law - however, once the current Congress debates end, I would like to push this idea forward for debate, to receive feedback and advice from citizens. Overall - this would be a long-term commitment for several governments to follow, and it is fair to debate it with our active politicians, who might be members or leaders of these governments.



And that is all for now - programs will come next, I promise 😉 !