Amsterdam: most business friendly European city

via iAmsterdam.com March 2012

Amsterdam has topped a list of large, business friendly cities in Europe. It was also ranked as the second-best large European city in regards to infrastructure and human capital, and ranks third as "best city of the future". This reinforces the reputation of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area as a region full of opportunities for international businesses.

"Cities and Regions of the Future" shortlist

The top ranking as the most business friendly large city in Europe was delivered by FDi Magazine as part of their annual “Cities and Regions of the Future” shortlists. These shortlists monitor several business categories across 253 European cities and 110 European regions. FDI Benchmark generates the results via an independent collection of data. Amsterdam is benchmarked alongside other large European cities such as Frankfurt and Helsinki – in this scenario, large refers to a city with a population between 500,000 and 1 million people.

Best for business

In the magazine’s business friendly shortlist, Amsterdam tops the rankings for large cities, indicating that the city scores highly in terms of the number of jobs that are created by foreign direct investments (FDI), growth of high-tech and knowledge intensive firms, and the ease of doing business. Amsterdam also scores well in regards to economic potential, infrastructure and human capital. Find out more about the Cities and Regions shortlist from FDi Intelligence.