Dubai Despite the recent announcements coming out Washington and what was interpreted as restrictive world trade measures including imposing tariffs on imported metals, Europe will continue to be an important destination for American companies, a senior Dutch official in investment said.
Jeroen Nijland, Commissioner of the Netherland Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA), said while political developments do affect investments, the European market, the second largest market in the world, will never lose its attractiveness.
In an exclusive interview with Gulf News on Wednesday evening during NFIA’s 40th anniversary celebration, Nijland said his agency’s field is not dealing with merging or acquisitions or joint ventures nor financial investments.
Yet, his work could be influenced by political decisions and developments in different parts of the world, including US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium. President Trump exempted both Canada and Mexico, while both European Union and Japan are seeking more information on whether they are exempted too.
“Of course our work is influenced by political and geopolitical things which are happening all over the world, in America, in Asia with China…Of course this influences our job, but this as a matter of fact is not something new, in the business of what we do, it has been always like that, it remains and it will be in the future.”
However, he continued, “I still believe…that it is relevant for American companies to be active in the European Market. The European market is the second biggest market in the world…in history and nowadays and in the future, it will be relevant for American companies to operate in the EU market. So they will still look for best locations to do their business.”
Brexit is another political development that influences business in several ways, he said.
While some companies “may now also ask themselves if the UK is also a good location after Brexit…It also affect new investments in a way opposite of that, because some investors may now think because of Brexit, there are a lot of turbulence in Europe (and) insecurity and (they say) I want to put my projects on hold, and just wait and see how things evolve and then I will reconsider where to invest.”
“The Netherlands is also another alternative location,” Nijland said, listing the features that his country can offer.
They include the strategic location in the European market.
“You can reach out to all the consumers in this market in 24 hours because of our ports and our great infrastructure, one-third of all the clients are within the range of 500 kilometres from the Netherlands. So this is a very good location, the physical infrastructure is great. We have a highly educated workforce, multi-lingual,” he said.
Moreover, the labour and political stability add to the advantages.
“The Netherlands is the country in the EU where the number of strikes are the lowest, so there is stability, and stability is important for foreign investments... also the political environment is stable, we always have coalition government, it means the policy swing is quite moderate, so the policies you have now, are the policies you have tomorrow.”
NFIA’s Dubai office is one of 28 offices in 17 countries around the world employing 115 people.
Commenting on the importance of the Gulf region to NFIA, Nijland said “it is very important for us”.
During the past ten year, nearly 60 investment projects, with the total sum of 1.1 billion euros (Dh4.99 billion) mainly in the energy sector, were brokered by NFIA from the Gulf region creating nearly 2000 jobs in the Netherlands.
