As I land in Amsterdam, as part of a small international media group to cover the Amsterdam International Fashion Week, any sign of the doom and gloom I had seen in Greece last month, and a fresh wave off crisis in Europe, this time with Italy being in the eye of the storm, are totally missing.

The mood is upbeat; yes, people admit, because the Dutch conduct business all over the world, and international companies find the investment atmosphere in the Netherlands “excellent”, the country was of course adversely affected by the global recession in 2008. But things are much better now, point out two of my Dutch co-passengers on the Emirates flight from Dubai to Amsterdam.

They are returning home after completing a shipping project in Bangladesh, and are only too happy to empty their purses of all the Takas for the airline's charity programmes. “We saw so much poverty there that we are grateful that our country is doing so well, and recession did not affect us too badly,” says one of them.

Holland has always been known as the land of windmills, cheese and tulips, and thanks to its excellent water management skills, has remained an aggressive agro-exporter. In his foreword in a booklet Holland Compared , Chris Buijing, Secretary General, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, says that if The Netherlands today is the sixth largest EU economy and has the second highest per capita (PPP) in Europe at $40,813, it is due to several reasons. It has a lot to offer to international investors apart from a great geographic position in Europe.

“The Dutch have an open and internationally oriented outlook; the workforce is well-educated and flexible; people often speak several languages; and this country has an excellent physical infrastructure.” He adds that his ministry is working to “constantly improve the Dutch business climate.”

Roel Mostert, a partner in Amsterdam Partners, a public-private city marketing agency funded by the Dutch government and corporates in Amsterdam, and which has a strong presence in India since the IIFA Awards of 2005, says there are 38 Indian companies in the city and its outskirts. The number of Indian expats in the city is constantly increasing. Coupled with its “highly open economy and good business culture”, the friendliness of the Dutch people makes Holland a great place to live and work in.

Amsterdam Partners supports events such as the Fashion Week, that build Brand Amsterdam, and is actively engaged with India. “Our perception of India? It is 90 per cent positive, because we have a large Indian community here. At 7,000, the Japanese are at present the largest expat community in Amsterdam, and Indians are well on the way to become the second largest,” he says.

More than any other European city, Amsterdam is the city of bicyles and as a pedestrian you have to be sensitive to the number of cyclists who will whizz through your path. Mostert is pleased as Punch that many of the Indian expats cover the distance of 5-6 km from the “village they live to their workplace in Amsterdam on cycles! They can easily take the bus but they ride bicycles, showing they have imbibed the culture of this place.”

On its part, for the last two years the Amsterdam Partners has been conducting cricket matches in which employees of Indian companies play.

Dmitri, the taxi driver who transfers me from the airport to my hotel, is a tall, handsome guy, who knows a little more about Bollywood than India as an emerging power. But he has watched Discovery programmes on BRICS, knows India is part of it, and there are “many IT companies in Bangalore”.

But he is shrewd enough to have noticed one Indian trait – to hang on to plastic bags and use and re-use them. He has me in splits when he says: “I often transfer Indians changing homes. They have a few suitcases, but many, many more plastic bags, and most of these contain all kinds of Indian herbs and spices. It's almost like they're carrying with them a mini-supermarket. But they are very aromatic…”!

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