How does this procedure compare to similar procedures in other parts of the world? Better? Worse?
We just visited the Chamber of Commerce to start a partnership. The person taking our registration just asked us a bunch of questions. (Names, SSN, address, etc., limitations to executive powers of the directors, name of the company, type of work done by the company, etc.) We showed him our passport, we paid about 100 euros and we were outside in an hour.
Bonus was that our Chamber of Commerce was conducting an experiment with the tax service where registering at the CoC would also give our data to the tax service. We got our tax number and papers by mail, instead of having to visit the tax service and filling out forms etc. there.
If you want to know for sure, you should contact the Chamber of Commerce: http://kvk.nl/ That's where you should register your company, so they probably know this (or know who can tell you).
You can open a bank account with just your articles of incorporation and an EIN, so you can do that on the same day as well, although I waited until the next day.
It really takes more time to learn what steps you need to take than to take them, in the US. At least if you're doing it the first time and are fairly conscientious about it.
All in all, I am very happy with how easy it is to set up a business in the states.
India is one of the bigger IT players though, so maybe that's the reason.