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.