The number of new businesses started by Bulgarians and Romanians in the Netherlands in 2007 has grown explosively, the Dutch Chamber of Commerce said in a report published on May 5. They form the fastest growing groups of new businesses in the Netherlands, are younger on average and a remarkably high percentage is female.

The report, titled Starters Profile 2007, said that Bulgarians and Romanians registering new companies in the Netherlands grew by 746 and 403 per cent, respectively, compared to 2006, when both countries were not European Union members yet.

In 2007, 102 000 new companies were registered in the Netherlands, of which 19 130 by people of foreign origin. A total of 1590 Bulgarians and 530 Romanians started a new company in the Netherlands in 2007. Bulgarian and Romanian registrants were younger, 33.5 and 30 year-old, respectively, than the 37 year-old average , and among them was a much higher percentage of women, 45 and 63 per cent, respectively, against 32 per cent for all new registrations.

Most companies registered by Bulgarians were in construction (39 per cent), agriculture (20 per cent) and personal services (19 per cent). Among Romanians, most registered were companies in personal services (39 per cent) and construction (25 per cent). The sector of so-called personal services almost entirely consisted of hairdressers and beauticians.

According to Dutch daily De Volkskrant, the national branch organisations for hairdressers and beauticians were surprised about the figures. "We have not received any indications that there were so many new foreign colleagues," a spokesperson for the branch organisation for beauticians was quoted as saying. Also for the labour unoin FNV, the interest of foreigners in the branch was new, the newspaper said.

The full report Starters Profile 2007, in Dutch, is available online.