1 Market overview

The following sub-chapters offer an overview of each of the four target markets: Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and the UK.

For each country, we have included a brief overview of relevant economic and geographic information, followed by data on the country’s international trade activities, SME involvement in that trade, popular financing mechanisms, and an overview of the country’s general atmosphere of digital openness.

Where possible, we have used data from the same time periods and collected from the same source(s).

This is intended to help form a comparison between the four markets, and avoid the natural discrepancies that exist between aggregate macroeconomic data.

As best as possible, we have avoided attaching any positive or negative connotations to statements within this section, focusing instead on measurable data points and statistics.