E108, Tuesday May 25. 14:00 hrs See session contents E108, Tuesday May 25. 16:15 hrs See session contents

About Mr. Siebe Riedstra

Siebe Riedstra (1955) took a degree in Political Science in 1980 at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam where he specialised in international relations. After graduating, he taught at a health education teacher training programme and a geriatric welfare programme at a college of higher professional education. From 1986 to 1993 he held various positions at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.
In 1993, Mr Riedstra moved to the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management. In the period up until 1999 he was involved with market regulation issues within the public transport sector. He was also involved with the liberalisation of taxi services, the decentralisation and market mechanisms process of city and suburban transport and with untangling rail transport.
In the years that followed, Mr Riedstra was active in the field of freight transport. His areas of responsibility included the spatial aspects of the transport of goods, the development of Dutch ports and the decision-making regarding the Maasvlakte 2 development. In the period from 2002 to 2005 he co-ordinated Spatial Planning policy within the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management and he was charged with drawing up the Ministry's contribution to the National Policy Document on Spatial Planning (Nota Ruimte).

In 2005, Mr Riedstra was appointed head of the Directorate-General of Passenger Transport (later renamed Mobility) that is responsible, among other things, for the introduction of Anders betalen voor Mobiliteit (A Different Way of Paying for Road Use; a road pricing scheme charging road users for each kilometre driven), the growth of rail transport, priority road projects, regional public transport, rail infrastructure projects and the Randstad High Priority programme.

Mr Riedstra has been Secretary-General for Transport, Public Works and Water Management since 1 December 2009.