Gemeente Zoetermeer

The city of Zoetermeer is known as a “New Town”. The last fifty years Zoetermeer has grown and developed from a small village into a modern city with approximately one hundred and twenty-five thousand (125,000) inhabitants, a very healthy place for new economy and information technology to grow and flourish, leisure capital of the region and located in the centre of the so called “Randstad’-region.

IT and IT-security knowledge play a key-role in Zoetermeer. The population of IT-specialists living in our city and working in the surrounding area is far above average in this region. At our Dutch Innovation Park we offer a unique combination of IT & IT-security education by The Hague University of Applied Sciences, innovative and international companies and an incubation-program for IT start-ups. At this location we work on the development of new IT-innovation with international companies based in the vicinity, but also by using our city as a real life testing ground for IT and security-innovations.

Being surrounded by cities like The Hague, Rotterdam and Amsterdam give this city the advantage of having businesses, high quality human capital and world class research & development nearby. For example: we have three universities within a 15 kilometre radius and we have our own bachelor-level IT-education within the city.

A pioneering mentality is needed to build a city from scratch where, after 50 years of development, people live in a comfortable and safe area with all services and quality they need. Learning by doing, that’s the characteristic of Zoetermeer. And doing by learning is what we achieve by involving schools and education centers in our economy. This mentality has made Zoetermeer into what it is now and this mentality attracts business partners and organizations that can identify with our approach.