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Gateway to Europe
Europe is the most important growth market for e-business operations. Success in this important market requires a strategic base for conducting pan-European e-business. The Netherlands' location as the gateway to the European continent and its expertise in international trade are important factors for conducting European business in general. The Netherlands' superb logistics and communications infrastructure, complemented by its multilingual work force and advanced Internet-ready environment, seems custom-designed for the requirements of pan-European e-business operations.
Holland is home to the Amsterdam Internet eXchange (AMS-IX), the largest Internet Exchange in continental Europe. The AMS-IX guarantees excellent connectivity to Europe and the world through its Internet Service Provider (ISP) members. The largest such exchange in continental Europe, AMS-IX can exchange Internet traffic in a fast, efficient and reliable way without routing through exchanges outside of the continent. It also provides bandwidth connections to other ISP's in the U.S. and abroad. The Netherlands boasts the largest bandwidths in Europe, and has initiated the
GigaPort project. The GigaPort project, the next generation in Internet connectivity will ensure that the Netherlands maintains high-speed, state-of-the-art networks.
Digital Infrastructure:
- A 100% digital network
- The most extensive glass fiber network in Europe
- The largest bandwidths on the European continent
- Among countries with the highest broadband density (35.5% in 2008)
- The opportunity to lease secure Internet connection lines
- Low-cost long-distance telecom and bandwidth charges
E-business in Europe:
- Dutch e-commerce is Europe's #1 online market (over 3 billion Euro in online retail sales in 2006). In five years, total online sales in the Netherlands is expected to reach 12 billion Euro (Forrester, September 2006).
Dutch enthusiasm for the Internet is enhanced by government support for a favorable e-business environment. As early as 1995, the Dutch government began undertaking a variety of e-business-friendly programs, while Dutch industry has developed and adopted the first ever eCommerce Code of Conduct. This Code has become a reference model for other OECD countries developing their own codes of conduct.
The Netherlands possesses all of the qualities necessary to lead Europe's rapidly evolving e-business economy.
Amsterdam: Knowledge hub
Amsterdam is a European Knowledge hub and a city of top economic performance. As of 2009, The Amsterdam Area alone has more than 400 Global and European head offices and an additional 1400 offices of international companies.
In Amsterdam 33% of the workforce is engaged in financial or business services, while 14.2% is active in the creative industry. Because of its 'hub' function, Amsterdam is extremely well-placed to profit from flows of ideas and creative people.
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