RECONSTRUCTION

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The World Bank’s first loans to the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1947 to 1949 include: the Reconstruction Loan, Loans to Dutch Shipping Companies, and Herstelbank. The first loan will be made to the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1947 for the amount of $195 million. It will be used to implement a program for the rehabilitation, reconstruction, and industrialization of the Netherlands. Some of the items that will be purchased for this program are: 1) machinery and equipment; 2) acquisition and repair of surplus U.S. merchant tonnage; and 3) feeding grains and cakes for animal fodder. The second loan will be made to the Dutch Shipping Companies in 1948 for the amount of $12 million. It will be used to purchase six 12,600 ton steam turbine cargo vessels that will replace a portion of the Netherlands' merchant marine ships lost in the war. The third and final loan will be made to the Herstelbank in 1949 for the amount of $15 million. It will be used to import equipment from the United States, Switzerland, Belgium, and Western Germany for the rehabilitation and modernization of manufacturing plants in various branches of Dutch industry. These loans will help to rehabilitate the post-war economy of the Netherlands.