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U.S. firms Michael Kors, Tesla lead 1.76 billion euros of foreign investment in Holland

Solid foreign investment numbers for 2015 have people in the business community sharing a post from Invest Holland on social media.

Some of the world’s best-known companies – led by U.S. multinationals – invested an aggregate 1.76 billion euros in 207 projects across the Netherlands during 2015, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs. More than 300 foreign companies created 7,800 jobs, according to the post.

EZ_infographic_NFIA_2015_ENG-700x947

These include big moves into the Netherlands by American fashion designer Michael Kors and Elon Musk’s Tesla electric cars, which built a new factory in the university town of Tilburg.

Larger projects include Michael Kors’ building a large distribution center in Venlo on the Dutch border with Germany and the American fast-fashion chain Forever 21 expanding its distribution center in the southwestern port of Bergen op Zoom.

Other projects mentioned in the post include a hydrocracker built by Irving, Texas-based ExxonMobile in Rotterdam.

American companies weren’t alone. Though U.S. was the top investor, buried in the post was the fact that more than a quarter of projects in 2015 came from Great Britain, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Turkey, Taiwan and Brazil.

That said, 71 U.S.-based companies invested in Dutch projects during 2015 compared to No. 2 China, with 38 projects.

Indian pharma and biotechnology company Cipla opened a laboratory in Bilthoven, and London-based easyJet opened a new hub at Schiphol Airport outside Amsterdam.

Screen Shot 2016-01-22 at 2.18.23 PMTo get some perspective on how good a year the Netherlands had, you have to go to the full 16-page NFIA Results report. For example, the 207 foreign investment projects are the most since 2006, and 11 percent more projects than in 2014. The 7,779 jobs created during 2015 are only topped by 2013, when foreign investment created 8,435 new jobs, according to NFIA data.

However – and this is a BIG however – total euros invested for 2015 is waaaay down from 3.2 billion euros invested last year.

The top job category by a mile is headquarters jobs, with 2,542, up 52 percent from 1,677 last year.

In the post, The Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency and regional economic-development agencies get credit for helping finesse these deals. The NFIA falls under the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.

You can read the entire report here.

 

 

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Co-CEO of Dispatches Europe. A former military reporter, I'm a serial expat who has lived in France, Turkey, Germany and the Netherlands.

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