Over 250 companies considering move to NL over Brexit: report

Over 250 companies are showing interest in moving to from the United Kingdom to the Netherlands due to the Brexit, a spokesperson for the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA) said to NOS. At the start of 2017 a total of 80 companies were considering moving to the Netherlands, and early last year there were 150.

The NFIA would not tell NOS which companies are involved, but did say they are in the health sector, the creative industry, financial services, and logistics. In addition to the 250 interested companies, there are also a number that already committed to moving to the Netherlands. The NFIA will announce exactly how many next month.

"Companies are looking for certainty, and the longer things about the situation after the Brexit remain unclear, the more companies choose a different location", a NFIA spokesperson said to the broadcaster. The NFIA falls under the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate. Its task is to help foreign companies settle in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands is competing with other EU countries, like Germany, France and Luxembourg, to convince Brexit fleeing companies to settle here. The Netherlands is doing well in that competition, according to the NFIA. "We have good infrastructure, with the port of Rotterdam and Schiphol. In addition, there are few strikes in the Netherlands, we have good universities that companies can work with, and it is nice to live here", the spokesperson said.

Attracting foreign companies also has benefits for the Netherlands. In 2017 a total of 18 companies moved to the Netherlands due to the Brexit. That resulted in 483 jobs and 19 million euros in investments, according to the NFIA.