West Holland at a Glance

As the seat of the Dutch government as well as the United Nations International Court of Justice, The Hague is home to a dense network of international organisations and the region offers a high quality of life to migrant knowledge workers.
Well connected by road, air and rail to Europe’s major business centres, West Holland is ideally suited to locate your company’s European headquarters.
A concentration of top-level research and knowledge institutions ensures a highly skilled labour force in the region, making it particularly attractive for hi-tech sectors like IT, biotech, aerospace, oil and gas, energy and life sciences. This also makes West Holland one of the topmost R&D areas in the Netherlands.

West Holland also has the most multilingual population in the region—about 78 percent of the population speaks English. For this reason, West Holland is a popular choice for international companies to locate their contact centres, shared service centres and call centres, with relatively inexpensive office space and excellent telecom infrastructure.

Key Sectors

Water and Delta technology

The water technology cluster covers many disciplines, such as waste and drinking water management, delta technology, water energy and groundwater hydrology. Thanks to the research taking place at the Delft University of Technology, a cluster of specialised companies and organisations in water management have located here. These include Fugro Global Headquarters (ranked among the top 10 of Geoscience companies in world), the Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP), the International Water Association (IWA), Deltares Institute for Delta Technology, and the UNESCO-IHE
Institute for Water Education.

Safety and Security

Being among the top four UN cities in the world, The Hague has established a strong reputation in the field of peace, justice and security. To facilitate activities and investment in safety and security, the Public Security Innovation Center (PSIC) was established. Some of the international organisations established in WestHolland are: the European Law Enforcement Organization (Europol), the European Centre for Conflict Prevention (ECCP) and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Oil and Gas (Energy)

WestHolland provides excellent operational infrastructure for the oil and gas sector. Close proximity to the seaport of Rotterdam and two major airports, combined with the international business climate, have attracted some of the world’s largest petrochemical and related businesses, such as Royal Dutch Shell’s Centre of Excellence for Worldwide Exploration and Production, Aramco Overseas, Fugro, Åker Solutions, Heerema Offshore, Repsol, Total and Chevron.

IT and Telecom

The presence of world leading companies like KPN, T-Mobile, Symantec, Samsung and Siemens contributes to the solid IT and telecom cluster in WestHolland. The close proximity to authorities for potential tenders, and the presence of academic and high-tech research institutes in Delft and Zoetermeer underline WestHolland’s unique advantages in IT and telecom.

Agribusiness

WestHolland houses a surprisingly large amount of indoor and outdoor agricultural activities. Highly innovative cultivation techiques combined with an efficient logistics network make WestHolland ‘the greenhouse capital of the world’. Among companies already located in WestHolland are Dusart, Monsanto and Syngenta. Leading agricultural research and academic facilities in the region include Wageningen University’s Research Centre for Greenhouse Horticulture, The Improvement Centre for optimal cultivation processes, and Leiden University’s Faculty of Plant Cell Biotechnology.

Life Science and Biotech

WestHolland is strong in the fields of life sciences and biotech. For example, the Leiden Bio Science Park is home to the largest concentration of life sciences activities in The Netherlands, and among the top bioscience parks in Europe. Pioneering companies such as Centocor, Pharming, Crucell and DSM, are producing ground-breaking medicines in Delft and Leiden. Several centers of academic research in the areas of drug discovery, industrial biotechnology and medical technology are located here. Delft is the proud home of the Kluyver Center for Genomics of Industrial Fermentation. And Zoetermeer is address of a number of medical technology companies, such as Toshiba, Drager, GE Medical, Atos Medical and PharmaPack.