Connected Logistically

The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area is uniquely positioned to respond to growing demand from logistics players for fast and reliable, multimodal solutions to cater to their specific customer needs. The excellent infrastructure by water, rail, road and air connect the area’s three logistic hubs: Port of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and Greenport Aalsmeer. All less than 15 minutes travel time between them. In addition to this strong ‘traditional’ infrastructure, Amsterdam’s unique selling points include an excellent ICT infrastructure. This is partly the result of AMS-IX’ presence in Amsterdam.

The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area is a well connected global hub with the international Amsterdam Airport Schiphol max 30 minutes away: a global hub with direct flights to over 322 destinations. For example, only one hour flight to London and you can hop on 66 times a day! Besides Schiphol we have a second airport: Lelystad Airport.

By using the extensive road and public transport network you can easily reach other major Dutch cities like The Hague, Utrecht, Rotterdam and Eindhoven within 1,5 hour drive but also Brussels, Paris and the German Ruhr Area within 3 hours.

Add to this the seaports of Amsterdam and Rotterdam and you have a major logistic hub that functions as a gateway to Europe.

Airport, Seaport, GreenPort, Dataport

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol offers over 322 destinations to 95 different countries. In terms of cargo, Schiphol comes third (with 1.7 million tonnes) after Frankfurt and Paris, and ranks third in terms of passenger volumes (63,6 million). 300 of the 500 businesses at and around the airport operate in the logistics sector.

Port of Amsterdam
The Amsterdam port region stores and tranships 97,4 million tonnes of goods every year and, as the world’s largest petrol and cocoa port, and as second largest coal port of Europe, leads the energy and food sectors. The port is the #4 port in Europe behind Rotterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg.

Greenport Aalsmeer
Greenport Aalsmeer (including FloraHolland location Aalsmeer) is part of a national network of Greenports. FloraHolland in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area is the largest flower auction in the world: 11 billion cut flowers, 1.3 billion plants and 20,000 different products are auctioned at FloraHolland.

Dataport
Digitally, Amsterdam is very well connected. The Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX) is the world’s largest and most stable digital exchange platform (IXP), and also well known for its high level of service and low costs. This powerful and stable global Internet hub has contributed to the rise of a dynamic Internet ecosystem in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, which includes Internet service providers, mobile operators, web hosts, content providers, cloud parties, and applications specialists.

Also part of this sector are datacenters. The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area is in the Top 5 of best places in the world of data centers. While Amsterdam holds up to 33% of the European data centers (>50 data centers), there is still plenty of physical data center space available. There is also a large quantity of empty buildings available that can be used to host data center services, greatly reducing the construction time of a data center.

Attractive business climate

With a competitive corporate income tax rate in Europe—20% on the first € 200,000 and 25% for taxable profits exceeding € 200,000—as well as a number of attractive incentive programs, the Netherlands offers a supportive fiscal climate for international companies.

For example, businesses can negotiate advance tax rulings with the Dutch Tax Office to obtain certainty on their tax liability for a period of up to ten years. The Netherlands has a very extensive tax treaty network to avoid double taxation. Another major strength is the expat ruling for qualifying non-resident employees, who are exempted from tax on the first 30 per cent of their income for a period of eight years.

Logistics businesses and datacenters can benefit from various Dutch tax schemes that are unique in Europe and highly appreciated by the sector, such as the following:

• Customs bonded warehousing
Payment of customs duties suspended. To be paid when goods leave warehouse to a destination within the EU. No duties on goods shipped to non-EU destinations.

• VAT deferment system
No upfront VAT payment on imports.

• Flexible and automated customs procedures
Dutch customs authorities operate in a transparent and reliable manner aiming to facilitate businesses. Customs compliance can be dealt with on a periodical basis, meaning customs declarations can be filed afterwards.