Embassy of India

The Hague, The Netherlands

BRIEF ON INDIA-NETHERLANDS BILATERAL TRADE AND INVESTMENT

Indo-Dutch business relations date back to more than 400 years. In 1604, the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, the VOC) began trading in India, first establishing itself in Dutch Coromandel, notably Pulicat, looking for textiles to exchange with the spices they traded in the East Indies. Diplomatic relations between India and the Netherlands were established in 1947.

Economic and commercial ties between India and the Netherlands are an important facet of the overall Indo-Dutch relations. India’s economic interests in the Netherlands include technical cooperation as a partner in key areas such as water management, agriculture and food processing, health, environment, transport and logistics infrastructure, health, services sector, and science and technology.

Bilateral Investment

The Netherlands is the fourth largest foreign investor in India during F.Y. 2021-2022 with FDI equity inflows of USD 4.62 billion (INR 34,442 crores). From April 2000 to September 2022, the Netherlands was the fourth largest investor into India comprising 7% of overall investment with cumulative FDI equity inflow of USD 43.022 billion (INR 2,77,387 crores).

Table 1: FDI Equity Inflows into India from the Netherlands

Financial Year	Amount in USD Million (INR in Crores)
2012-2013	1,856 (10,054)
2013-2014	2,270 (13,920)
2014-2015	3,436 (20,960)
2015-2016	2,643 (17,275)
2016-2017	3,367 (22,633)
2017-2018	2,800 (18,048)
2018-2019	3,870 (27,036)
2019-2020	6,500 (46,071)
2020-2021	2,789 (20,830)
2021-2022	4,620 (34,442)
2022-23 (April – September)	1,761 (13,793)
April 2000 – September 2022	43,022 (2,77,387)

Source: Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India

During the period April 2000 till November 2022, the Netherlands is the fourth largest destination of foreign investment (Overseas Direct Investments - ODI) by Indian companies worth USD 23.488 billion accounting for 9% of total overseas investments. In F.Y. 2021-2022, the Netherlands was the fifth largest destination for ODI from India with investments of USD 1.02 billion.

Table 2: ODI Outflows from India into the Netherlands

Financial Year	Amount in USD Million
2013-2014	1,774.43
2014-2015	731.78
2015-2016	994.60
2016-2017	743.71
2017-2018	1143.34
2018-2019	1105.06
2019-2020	1232.56
2020-2021	1,267.00
2021-2022	1,020.00
2022-23 (April – November)	638.00
April 2000 – November 2022	23,488.00

Source: Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Ministry of Finance, Government of India

Bilateral Trade

The Netherlands was India’s fourth largest merchandise trading partner in the European Union, after Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. During the F.Y. 2021-2022, the total merchandise trade with the Netherlands stood at USD 17.022 billion (INR 1,27,132 crores) compared to USD 9.791 billion in the F.Y. 2020-2021, a YoY growth of 73.86%. The total merchandise trade with the Netherlands accounts for 1.64% of India’s total merchandise trade.

The Netherlands is India’s largest merchandise export destination in Europe and fifth largest in the world. In the F.Y. 2021-2022, India exported USD 12.547 billion (INR 93,746 crores) worth of goods to the Netherlands. The main items of Indian exports to the Netherlands include petroleum products, organic chemicals, telecom instruments, aluminium & its products, iron & steel & their products, ready-made garment cotton & accessories, residual chemical & allied products, drug formulations & biologicals, and electronics instruments.

In the F.Y. 2021-2022, the Netherlands exported USD 4.478 billion (INR 33,386 crores) worth of goods to India. The main items of Dutch exports to India include organic chemicals, vegetable oils, iron & steel, drug formulations & biologicals, plastic raw materials, dairy machinery, residual chemical & allied products, medical & scientific instruments, aluminium & its products, and electronics instruments.

There are over 300 Dutch companies present in India, including major players like Royal Dutch Shell, Unilever, Philips, Signify, Akzo Nobel, DSM, KLM, Rabobank, Heineken, TomTom, Paques, Boskalis, Van Oord, Damen Shipyards, Vopak, Aegon, etc. Similarly, there are over 300 Indian companies present in the Netherlands, including all the major IT companies such as TCS, HCL, Wipro, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, as well as Sun Pharmaceuticals, Tata Steel, Dr. Reddy’s, LT Foods, Solis, Mittal Steel and United Phosphorus Limited (UPL).

Indian companies have made major acquisitions in the Netherlands like hotel company ‘OYO Hotels and Homes’ acquisition of Amsterdam-based vacation rental firm @Leisure Group, Tata Steel’s purchase of Anglo-Dutch ‘Corus’, Ola’s acquisition of electric scooter company ‘Etergo’, Apollo Tyres’ acquisition of Dutch tyre-maker Vredestein Banden, Aspire Systems’ acquisition of Dutch-Polish software solutions firm Goyello, and the purchase of the Dutch company Bilthoven Biologicals by the Serum Institute of India.

There are a number of organizations that are active in promoting India-Netherlands trade and investment such as the Netherlands India Chamber of Commerce & Trade (NICCT) and the Indian Business Chamber (IBC).

High Level Visits to Promote Trade and Investment

In 2017, the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi visited the Netherlands marking the 70th anniversary of the diplomatic relationship between India and the Netherlands. A high-level CEOs roundtable also took place during the visit.

The Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte along with a high-level delegation visited India from May 24-25, 2018 and was accompanied by over 130 Dutch companies/institutions and nearly 200 trade representatives.

The Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima visited India as state guests from 14-18 October 2019 and were accompanied by the largest ever Dutch trade delegation to India comprising over 140 Dutch companies/institutions and nearly 250 business representatives. The focus areas of the delegation were the water sector, agri-food, healthcare, technology and maritime sector. The delegation visited New Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Kochi. Stef Blok (Dutch Foreign Minister), Sigrid Kaag (Minister for Foreign Trade and Development), Bruno Bruins (Minister for Health, Welfare and Sport) and Mona Keijzer (State Secretary for Economic Affairs and Climate Policy) accompanied the delegation along with Ineke Dezentje Hamming-Bluemink, Chairman of FME, the largest industrial employers and business organization in the Netherlands. 51 MoUs and agreements were signed between Dutch and Indian partners during the visit.

The Netherlands was India’s partner country for the Technology Summit at New Delhi which took place from 15-16 October 2019.

From 8-12 February 2021, a Dutch virtual trade mission to India took place led by Sigrid Kaag, Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development. The three focus areas of the trade delegation included Water, Food waste and energy.

The President of India Ram Nath Kovind paid a State Visit to the Netherlands from 4-7 April 2022. The President welcomed Dutch start-ups and SMEs working in geospatial mapping, Artificial Intelligence, clean energy, assistive technology, and biomedical devices to ‘Make in India’ and innovate in India. Other announcements during the visit include extension of MoU on bilateral cooperation in the field of Ports, Maritime Transport, and Logistics; and the extension of the Programme of Cooperation between Department of Biotechnology, Government of India and Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, Government of the Netherlands.

The Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Keshav Prasad Maurya led a delegation to the Netherlands from 15-17 December 2022. The Minister for Information Technology & Electronics of UP Yogendra Upadhyay was also a part of the delegation. The delegation visited several Dutch companies. The delegation held G2B meetings with CEOs/CXOs of several Dutch companies. A Conference on ‘Investment Opportunities in Uttar Pradesh’ took place during the visit, in which around 70 representatives from both Dutch and Indian companies participated.