The Netherlands has received the highest score on qualitative location factors in a Dutch study of European supply chains.
"This is why the Netherlands is gaining recognition as Europe's most important and fastest growing logistics hub," said Linnie Mackenzie, area director of the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA) in Singapore.
"No other country in western Europe can offer such an effective combination of both sea and airport and multimodal connections," she added.
Top marks were awarded for its regulatory and customs environments, transport rates and the availability of intermodal transport solutions.
The "High Quality, Competitive Costs" benchmark study conducted by the Holland International Distribution Council (HIDC) and Buck Consultants International (BCI) compared 21 European cities.
The survey looked at different cities suitability at becoming central European distribution centres (EDCs) or regional distribution centres (RDCs) by analysing various business case studies in the high tech, spare parts, lifestyle and medical technology industries.
The study also took into account the total supply chain costs from source to market, as well as qualitative factors, such as physical accessibility, quality of labour, availability of transport and the regulatory and customs climate.
"The excellent score of the Netherlands is due to its labour flexibility, hiring and termination regulations. Dutch customs procedures received a high score as well. Customs is known for being favourably disposed towards businesses. This finding is supported by the recent outcome of the World Bank's Logistics Performance Index, where the Dutch customs scored highest in the world," the release said.
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