International top managers say the Netherlands passes as a location for company head offices, though they don’t give the country top marks.

The findings come in a report by the Erasmus University Rotterdam commissioned by employers’ organisation VNO-NCW, which was presented to Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende on Wednesday.

Eighty-five percent of multinational bosses located in the Netherlands have no plans to move their head offices elsewhere in the coming five years, although they may move certain divisions within their organisations. Only two percent are considering shifting the company out of the Netherlands altogether. Nevertheless, the company chiefs were reluctant to grade the Netherlands higher than satisfactory.

On the plus side, they said they valued the Netherlands for its well-developed infrastructure and ICT facilities, its security, and its non-xenophobic international orientation.

The researchers say it is important for the Netherlands to hold on to its Top 100 company headquarters, as they create 30,000 jobs directly and a further 65,000 indirectly. The report advises that measures such as scrapping dividend tax would make the country more attractive as a business location.

They also say Dutch universities should place more emphasis on achieving excellence to offer international company head offices with a pick of top talent from which to recruit their personnel.

The study points out that the Netherlands punches above its weight as a base for multinationals. It is seventh favourite country as a location for Fortune Global 500 companies, one place below China. The combined turnover of the multinationals based in the Netherlands is higher than the country’s gross national product.