Biographical Note

NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF NETHERLANDS PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

(Based on information received from the Protocol and Liaison Service.)

Dirk Jan van den Berg, the new Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to the United Nations, presented his credentials to Secretary-General Kofi Annan today.

Prior to his appointment, Mr. Van den Berg was Secretary-General of the Netherlands' Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a position he held since September 1992.  He had previously been Deputy Director-General of the Directorate-General for Industry and Regional Policy in the Ministry of Economic Affairs from March 1992.

Other positions held by Mr. Van den Berg include head of the Industrial Policy and Budget Division of the Directorate-General for Industry and Regional Policy (January 1987 to December 1988) and Deputy Director-General for Foreign Economic Relations (January 1989 to February 1992).  In the latter capacity, he also headed the Trade Policy Division of the Directorate-General for Foreign Economic Relations.

From 1986 to 1988, Mr. Van den Berg was Director of the Beroepsopleiding Financieel Economische Beleidsmedewerker, a post-graduate programme in public finance at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam.

Mr. Van den Berg studied econometrics (mathematical economics and macroeconomics) at the University of Groningen from 1973 to 1980, graduating with honours.  In November 1980, he took up a post as policy planner in the Macro Economic Policy Division of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.  From September 1984 to December 1985, he studied at the École Nationale d’Administration in Paris.

Born in 1953, Mr. Van den Berg is married with two children.

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