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An international outlook, economic growth, social and cultural exchange along with a rich history of trade makes Amsterdam an ideal investment destination.
Amsterdam, with 180 nationalities among the almost 880.000 inhabitants, is an open, international city. Because of its rich history as a leading trading centre, the city has always looked beyond its borders. This international outlook has enabled economic growth, social and cultural exchange and has made Amsterdam the diverse city it is today. The connection to the rest of the world is also visible in the current business ecosystem, that offers opportunities for start-ups, scale-ups and global corporations alike.
The Amsterdam area is at present home to over 3,500 international companies.
This number has been growing over the past 15 years as Amsterdam became a magnet for businesses and talent from abroad. The city has a favourable business climate, is strategically located within Europe, is home to a large English-speaking talent-pool, strong in innovation, and Schiphol Airport is our gateway to the world and a crucial engine for economic development in Amsterdam, the surrounding region and the country.
Like so many countries and cities throughout the world, our city has been hit hard by Covid-19 and the restrictive measures that are necessary to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Whereas before this crisis our local economy was booming, these days many businesses are struggling, and unemployment is rising. For an open, lively, enterprising city like Amsterdam, these are sobering and difficult times.But we believe that we can weather this storm together. We know that our foundations are strong. Our city is ready to pick things up, after this crisis is over.
We also see it as an opportunity to work on being more resilient, more sustainable, more innovative. Tourism is one example where we have an opportunity now to work on a new balance, based on sustainable tourism and respect for the city's heritage and population.
In business, this crisis has shown us new ways of working together, with organizations that are less dependent on air travel and office space. It is time to fully embrace the era of trading without restraints in time and place: with innovative solutions for logistics and green mobility. This crisis is a challenge for all of us, but it also provides us with new opportunities. We want to build on our strong foundations, but we also want to explore new opportunities to grow in a smart and responsible way.
When it comes to doing business with India, the ties between our countries go back to the 17th century. More recently, in 2012, Mumbai and Amsterdam became sister cities. The Netherlands is the third largest investor in India, after Mauritius and Singapore. India has exported goods to the Netherlands worth $8.3 billion and imported goods from our country worth $3.39 billion in the last fiscal year.
Over the past years many Indian multinationals have established offices in the Amsterdam Area. There are 270 Indian companies represented in The Netherlands of which 135 are in the Amsterdam Area, accounting for 24.000 direct jobs.
The most prominent group from India is the Tata Group - TCS (IT), Tata Steel but also Infosys, HCL Technologies and Wipro and Cognizant are large IT companies represented here. Besides IT companies, there are prominent pharmaceutical companies in the area such as Sun Pharma and Piramal.
The Amsterdam Area is also home to almost 15.000 international employees from India. The Amsterdam Area has the 2nd largest concentration of Indians in Europe, after London. 200.000 people of Indian descent - mostly Indian-Surinamese - live in the Netherlands.
Recently a number of top IT companies have set up their innovation centre in Amsterdam. A key example is Tata Consultancy Services Pace Port with their innovation centre in the World Trade Center Amsterdam - which has been created to unify the corpus of TCS' research, innovation, and digital transformation experiences to help organizations seamlessly transition into the Business 4.0™ era.
Amsterdam aspires to remain an inclusive city with opportunities and jobs for everyone. Therefore, we foster cooperation with companies who consider corporate social responsibility a priority as well as focus on inclusive and sustainable jobs for all of our citizens.
Jolanda van der Aart is senior manager foreign investments at Amsterdam inbusiness, the official foreign investment agency for the Amsterdam Area. She has many years of experience in supporting companies from India with establishing their office in Amsterdam.