Amsterdam Metropolitan Area At A Glance

Hub for international business and a financial centre

The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, with its traditional openness for the rest of the world, is currently home to over 1800 foreign businesses. Undoubtedly, it is the topmost destination within the Netherlands for Indian companies, many of whom have offices here from where they manage their European operations. Ready availability of highly skilled workers is another advantage that Amsterdam offers to foreign companies looking to set up here.
The Holland Financial Centre, which is a joint initiative set up by several financial institutions (banks, insurers, trading firms, pension funds, asset managers, audit firms, law firms and the government) to ensure the strength of the Dutch financial sector and therefore attract investments into the Netherlands, is also located at the Dam Square in Amsterdam.
BioPortEurope, a professional life sciences expertise and trading center, assists  Indian life sciences companies that want to operate in the European market.

Well connected

With excellent connections to the rest of Europe via train, air, sea and road, Amsterdam offers easy access to all major cities in continental Europe. Home to an international airport and a major seaport, Amsterdam is now also a part of Europe’s high speed rail network.  All these excellent connections make it easy for companies to access customers across Europe. Another important factor in the attractiveness of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area to service companies is the stability of its data transport. The Amsterdam Internet Exchange (Ams-IX) is the largest exchange worldwide, in traffic as in members. The city also has the second highest level of broadband penetration in Europe.

Magnet for Indian companies

Amsterdam and India have strong trade relations going back all the way to the 17th century. Today, the popularity of Amsterdam among Indian companies is obvious. The early movers were some of the largest IT service providers in India like Wipro Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Technologies, who set up offices in the new business district in south of the city. Today, Indian companies from diverse areas like finance, IT consulting, business process outsourcing and energy, among others, are comfortable doing business from their offices in the Greater Amsterdam area.

Oriented towards Indian expats

The Netherlands invites knowledge migrant workers and has introduced a special procedure that makes it easier to get a residence permit. Many Indians are now working in the Netherlands because of this procedure. The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area has the largest concentration of expats from India, numbering over 3000. Amsterdam has an active Expatcenter to help knowledge migrants settle into the area. The city’s Cricket Club holds an annual cricket tournament every year and is particularly attractive for South Asian immigrants. Recently, the city hosted the inauguration of the Indian Expat Society. Amsterdam’s multicultural environment offers a high quality of life and a variety of experiences to the Indian immigrant.