Three Things to Know about the Dutch, Portuguese and French Tech Markets

3 Things to Know about the Dutch, Portuguese and French Tech Markets

Netherlands:

· Demand for U.S. Products: The Netherlands has traditionally represented a significant export market for the United States. In 2020, U.S. exports of goods to the Netherlands amounted to $45 billion, which represents more than 19 percent of total U.S. exports to the European Union.

· Market of Innovation: The Netherlands has a vibrant knowledge-based economy with a strong emphasis on innovation.

· Culture of Diversity: The Dutch government has a notable focus on promoting diversity across all levels. This is widely adopted by companies, organizations, and government. There are several initiatives to increase the number of women in Tech. These are embraced by the largest trade associations and by both Dutch and American multinationals.

Portugal:

· Government-Led Digital Transformation: In the second phase of Industry 4.0, the Government of Portugal has reinforced and accelerated measures to achieve a more robust digital transformation and economic recovery. These efforts range from supporting the digitization of the health system and expanding tools to manage health resources and patients to introducing new and additional online public services and developing initiatives for digital home schooling and tele-schooling.

· Digital Link to Europe: EllaLink, the first high-speed submarine fiber optic cable linking Europe (Sines, Portugal) and South America (Fortaleza, in Brazil), is an essential infrastructure for the digital connection and data transmission between the two continents. In May 2022, the Equiano, a Google funded subsea cable, landed Portugal and will connect Europe to the west coast of Africa. Another two subsea cables are scheduled to arrive in Portugal between 2023 and 2025 and that will reinforce Portugal’s strategic location for connecting Europe to the rest of the world.

· Data Processing Capacity: The city of Sines is developing a 3.5 billion Euros hyperscale data center, the largest renewable data center campus in Europe, designed to handle the ever-growing demand for streaming services, video conferencing, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and data storage. Once completed, Portugal will have the second largest data processing capacity in Europe (behind Ireland).

France:

· Dynamic Services Sector: A dynamic services sector now accounts for an increasingly large share of economic activity and is responsible for most job creation in recent years.

· Government Investment in Digital: As part of the Plan de Relance French Stimulus package, the government plans to spend $8.28 billion (€7 billion) on digital investments to support startups, infrastructure, and digital transformation. Growth in 2021 will be

spurred by an increase in IT spending, digital transformation, migration to cloud, hybrid work policies, and an overall increase in workforce recruitment for this critical sector.

· U.S. Companies Lead Tech Market: American Tech companies are viewed as leaders in the sector with key players such as Microsoft, Apple, Dell, Adobe, IBM, Oracle and SAP having large market shares.