'Action needed to keep foreign HQs'
Monday 31 March 2008
The strong position of the Netherlands as the location for corporate head-quarters is under threat, warns the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in a report presented to the economic affairs ministry on Monday.
A new approach is needed if the country is to keep the 30 head-offices it currently has and which pump €13bn into the Dutch economy, says the consultancy firm.
It also needs to attract new companies to the country. The Netherlands must select specific sectors in which it wants to build up a position and then dedicate an area to these, the report says.
An example of this is Food Valley around the agricultural university in Wageningen where firms involved in food technology could be further concentrated. ‘But this does call for long-term thinking and until now that has been lacking in industrial policy,’ BCG director Emile Gostelie says in today’s NRC Handelsblad.
The global head-offices of 16 of the world’s 500 biggest companies are situated in the Netherlands as well as 14 European head-quarters, giving the country ‘an above average’ share of this market, says the BCG.
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Wednesday: Cloudy to start in the north, then dry, cold and sunny everywhere. Night frost in southeast
Who is supposed to do the long-term thinking? Department of Trade or private businesses?
By Ingrid Rivers | March 31, 2008 4:35 PM