The Netherlands Posts Highly Favorable Foreign Direct Investment Results For 2012

NEW YORK, Feb. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite continuing difficult economic times, the Netherlands remains a powerful magnet for worldwide foreign direct investment (FDI), posting impressive results for 2012. The Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA) supported the attraction of 170 foreign investment projects, representing 5,166 jobs and planned investment of $1.248 billion.

While more than half of the projects originated in Asia, North America recorded 36 percent of the total. The United States maintains its top spot as the leading single-country investor overall with 58 projects, a healthy increase over the previous year's sum of 46. China posted 31 projects, Korea 19, Japan 4 and Taiwan 10 to round out the top five.

Forty-one of United States' 58 projects were initial investments into the Netherlands. Adding in three projects from Canada and one from Mexico, the North American totals are: 62 projects; 2,435 jobs; and $495.1 million investment. All three of these figures represent substantial boosts from 2011.

"The Netherlands succeeded in attracting many high quality projects in the past year which resulted in the establishment of European headquarters operations, research and development activities, and strategic manufacturing," said NFIA Commissioner Bas Pulles. "The share of high quality projects increased for the fifth consecutive year to 49 percent in number of projects and even to 70 percent in number of jobs."

In the US, a total of 17 European headquarters projects edged out the number attributed to marketing and sales activity (16).  Similar to the last several years, the ICT sector led the way with the most projects (14), followed by Life Sciences and Health (8).

The list of successful projects in 2012 includes the global headquarters for D.E. Master Blenders 1753 (Sara Lee spinoff) in Amsterdam and the new European headquarters and R&D facilities for Avery Dennison.  Noteworthy projects in the U.S. include European headquarters for Reachlocal, Envivo, and Dawn Food Products, as well as a manufacturing expansion for Invista.

About NFIA

The NFIA is an operational unit of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The NFIA helps and advises foreign companies on the establishment, rolling out and/or expansion of their international activities in the Netherlands. The NFIA was established 35 years ago, and has since then supported more than 4,000 companies from over 50 countries in the establishment or expansion of their international activities in the Netherlands. Besides its headquarters in The Hague, the NFIA has its own offices in the United Kingdom, Turkey, North America, Asia and the Middle East, as well as Brazil. Additionally, the NFIA works together with Dutch embassies, consulates-general, and other organizations representing the Dutch government abroad, as well as with a broad network of domestic partners. More information: www.nfia.com.

The NFIA has U.S. offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New York City and San Francisco.

This material is distributed by Aloysius Butler & Clark, on behalf of the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency.
Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.

SOURCE Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency