Glossary

Born global

An enterprise which pursues international trade activities starting from the year of its establishment (imports, exports or both).

Brownfield FDI

Cluster of enterprises that work together and share know-how, enabling them to produce innovative, high-grade products or services which can be sold in the international market more quickly.

Carry-along trade (CAT)

Manufacturing products that an exporter has not itself produced, but which it supplies together with the exports that are of its own manufacture.

Core exports

All products manufactured by exporting enterprises in a specific sector. All self-manufactured export products of an enterprise belong to its core exports.

Core-related non-CAT

Core products that the enterprise has not produced itself and that are therefore considered to be potential CAT exports, but are ultimately not CAT exports, for example because they are exported to a country to which no core exports are sold.

Discontinuing exporter

A discontinuing exporter is an enterprise which does not export goods or services in year T, nor in T-1, but which did export these goods or services in year T-2. The enterprise must still be in existence in year T in order to be listed as discontinuing exporter.

Domestic exports (Dutch-manufactured exports)

Exports after production in the Netherlands, or after significant processing of foreign-produced goods (taking into account the level of adjustments in the product’s HS code). Re-exports and domestic exports combined constitute the basis of total Dutch export figures.

Dutch business economy

The General Business Register (ABR) is based on the Dutch Standard Industrial Classification (SBI) which classifies business units according to their main activity. The business economy in the Netherlands comprises all enterprises listed in the Standard Industrial Classification (Dutch SBI 2008) sections B up to and including N, exclusive of K plus S95. This classification is referred to internationally as non-financial business economy.

This category is composed of the following sectors:

B Mining and quarrying

C Manufacturing

D Production and distribution of and trade in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply

E Water supply; sewerage, waste and wastewater management and remediation services

F Construction

G Wholesale and retail trade; motor vehicle repair

H Transportation and storage

I Accommodation and food service activities

J Information and communication

L Renting, buying and selling of real estate

M Consultancy, research and other specialised business services

N Renting and leasing of tangible goods and other business support services

S95 Repair of personal and household goods

Enterprise

The actual transactor in the production process, characterised by self-sufficiency with respect to the decisions about that process and by offering its products to third parties. An enterprise comprises one or several legal entities. A distinctive feature is the autonomy in the decision-making with regard to production taking place within this composite entity. The Dutch component of an entity whose activities extend across multiple countries is considered an enterprise in itself for the sake of national statistics.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

An enterprise receiving direct investments from abroad is an enterprise in which a foreign investor holds at least 10 percent of the ordinary share capital or the voting rights, or the equivalent thereof. This involves having a controlling interest and substantial influence on the management of the enterprise. Direct investment consists of share capital, participating interests in group companies abroad and credit lending.

Foreign-owned enterprise

A foreign-owned enterprise is classified according to the country where it is ultimately controlled. This is done based on the Ultimate Controlling Institutional Unit (UCI). The UCI is defined as that enterprise which is placed higher up in the chain of control of the Dutch enterprise that is not under the ultimate control of any other company or enterprise. Foreign control means that the country where the UCI is established is not the Netherlands.

FTE

A measure of labour volume, calculated by converting all full-time and part-time jobs to full-time jobs. Two half-time jobs (0.5 FTE each) add up to a labour volume of one labour year.

Greenfield FDI

A foreign investment in a foreign subsidiary that is yet to be established from scratch.

Gross domestic product (GDP)

GDP is a measure for the size of a country’s economy. This is calculated from the sum of the value added by enterprises, households and governments to the goods and services they have used in their production activities. This sum is referred to as the value added at basic prices. To arrive at GDP at market prices, the balance of taxes on production plus other subsidies is added as well as the difference between the attributed VAT and paid VAT.

Import intensity

The import intensity ratio is an indicator of the degree of international competitive pressure in the local market. It is expressed as a percentage share which shows to what extent domestic demand for goods or services depends on foreign imports. The higher the import intensity ratio, the larger the contribution of imports in meeting the total demand for goods and services.

Independent SMEs

Independent small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) comprise all businesses in the Netherlands owned by Dutch residents with total numbers of employed persons in the entire organisation falling below 250.

Intellectual property

A collective term for rights granted on detailed ideas and concepts, for example patents, trademarks and copyrights.

Intermediate goods

Inputs in the production process, such as raw materials, semi-manufactures and fuels. An intermediate product is used during the production process. It is often transformed and then incorporated into the end product. Intermediate goods are therefore used to make other products.

Intermittent exporter

An enterprise that experiences a cycle of being briefly active in foreign markets and then returning to the Dutch market.

Internationally active entrepreneur

An internationally active entrepreneur is an entrepreneur who acts internationally or is at the helm of a multinational.

International trade in goods

International trade in goods involves Dutch residents who deliver goods to locations outside the Netherlands, and residents abroad who deliver goods to locations in the Netherlands. In intra-EU imports, this is the value of the goods including freight and insurance costs up to the Dutch border. In extra-EU imports, this is the value of the goods including freight and insurance costs up to the external border of the European Union. The export value is including freight and insurance costs up to the Dutch border. This is in line with the International Trade in Goods (ITG) statistics.

International trade in services

International trade in services occurs when a resident of one country provides economic services to residents of another country. Services are products that are generally not tangible, such as transportation, business services and personal, cultural and recreational services. Dutch residents refer to enterprises and individuals that engage in economic activities from any location in the Netherlands that has been in use for more than one year.

Investments in tangible fixed assets

Goods which are purchased or produced in-company for use as capital assets in the production process. This includes goods that have a life span exceeding one year, such as buildings, dwellings, machinery, transport vehicles and the like.

Large enterprise

All companies established in the Netherlands as part of a group of companies with at least 250 employed persons and/or part of a group of companies under foreign control.

Mainport

A hub where important connections and activity flows in both the Netherlands and abroad conjoin and separate again.

Multinational

An enterprise with a parent or subsidiary abroad.

New exporter

A new exporter is an enterprise that exports goods or services in year T which it did not export (yet) in T-1 nor in T-2, regardless of whether the company already existed in those years.

Non-multinational

An enterprise without a parent or subsidiary abroad.

Outsourcing

International outsourcing of business activities to foreign suppliers.

Re-exports

Goods which, after being imported into the Netherlands, undergo little or no significant processing before being exported from the Netherlands again. Unlike in quasi-transit trade, the goods are (temporarily) owned by a resident enterprise while in the Netherlands. Re-exports and domestic exports combined constitute the basis of total Dutch export figures.

Royalties

Remuneration payments for the ongoing use of someone else’s intellectual property rights. Examples include copyrights, trademark rights and patent rights.

Special Purpose Entity (SPE)

Special Purpose Entities (SPEs) are subsidiaries of foreign enterprises which are established in the Netherlands that act as cross-border financial intermediaries between various composite entities of the group in which they operate. The receivables and liabilities of these institutions usually concern direct investments from one country to another via the Netherlands, or channelling of resources collected abroad to the foreign parent. In this respect, SPEs are dedicated legal entities concerned with securitisations. As part of the securitisation transaction, an SPE takes over assets and/or credit risks and issues securities, securitisation fund units, other debt instruments and/or financial derivatives, or is the owner of any underlying assets. An SPE is safeguarded against the risk of bankruptcy or other default of the initiator (also referred to as ‘originator’, i.e. the institution transferring assets and/or credit risks to the SPE).

Transit trade

The flow of goods that, on its way from one country to another, is transported over Dutch territory but remains foreign-owned.

Two-way trader

An enterprise or business establishment which both imports and exports either goods or services. This is unlike what is called a one-way trader, which is either a one-way importer or a one-way exporter.

Value added

The gross value added equals the production (in basic prices) minus intermediate consumption (excl. deductible VAT).