For the Netherlands, commercial and cultural contacts across the borders
are of vital importance. The world's eighth trading nation holding pride
of place in many market segments, the Netherlands is highly dependent on
developments worldwide. Through other economic ties as well, our country
is firmly embedded in the world around us. Until the Second World War,
the methods used in the Netherlands to collect data about these
international relations were less than adequate. As a result, the
compila- tion of a consistent overview in the form of a balance of
payments was barely feasible in those years. After the War this
situation was improved markedly, and the Bank was assigned a key role in
the compilation of the balance of payments. This role entails that the
Bank must also answer the many requests for information about the
underlying data and that, by analysis of these data, it must come to
policy recommendations. It is our experience - almost daily - that
international direct in- vestment is among the subjects which have been
attracting major attention in recent years, both at home and abroad.