Foreign investment in the Netherlands has gone up considerably in the past year despite the economic crisis. Figures published by the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency show that the amount has gone up to 3.142 billion euros, compared to 667 million euros in 2008.

The rise is due to two major investors, German energy giant RWE which put 2 billion euros into a coal-fired electricity plant in Eemshaven, and Finland's Neste Oil which invested 670 million euros in a bio diesel production facility in Rotterdam.

Caretaker Minister of Economic Affairs Maria van der Hoeven, whose office published the figures, said on Monday that they prove that trade and foreign investment are not just the driving force of the Dutch economy, they are the very way out of the crisis. Foreign investments account for 15 percent of the labour market in the Netherlands.

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