Dutch trade minister Sigrid Kaag on Friday launched a new logo for the Netherlands, replacing the conventional tulip currently used by the tourism board.

The new logo combines the letters NL with a stylised tulip and was developed at a cost of €200,000. It comes in eight language variations.

The new logo is both positive for exports and attracting investment and talent, Kaag said, and will be used on every trade mission.

‘I am sure most people will understand that costs come before benefits and as we are talking about billions of euros and jobs, that €200,000 is a small amount in the total package,’ Kaag told reporters.

Ministries, embassies, universities, local councils and other organisations working on joint projects with national government will be able to use the logo from January next year.

In October it emerged that the Dutch government planned to stop promoting the country abroad as ‘Holland’ and will instead use The Netherlands’. The detailed plan still has to be published.

A spokeswoman for the ministry told DutchNews.nl the word The had been dropped from the logo ‘because of the layout’.

‘It is a way of abbreviating the name,’ she said. ‘We did the same thing with the French logo (we used Pays-Bas instead of les Pays-Bas). Also as a bonus: it makes it easier to google the whole thing.’