In a recent report of Dun & Bradstreet one can read that there are 5.320 foreign companies in the Netherlands, responsible for 700.000 direct jobs. That is 15% of the total workforce in the Netherlands. Those foreign companies create 24% of the total profits made by enterprises in the Netherlands, and they are responsible for 21% of all investments in our country. Their share in R&D investments is 21% and they pay 15% more salary to their employees than Dutch companies. The multiplier effect of every job created by foreign companies is 1,7. That means that every fte ( full time employment job) creates an additional 0,72 fte.

For Brabant those figures mean that 1400 foreign companies create more than 100.000 direct and 80.000 indirect jobs, 15% of the total workforce in Brabant. Their R&D share is significant higher in this part of the Netherlands, 29%. That is no surprise: Brabant is the R&D centre of the Netherlands, especially related to industrial activities.

Foreign investors continue to find their way to Brabant as is clear from the figures in the first half of 2010: almost 80 m. direct investments found their way to our province, more than 25% of it in R&D related projects.