The initiative to set up a National Bureau on Modern Languages (NaB-MVT) was taken by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in 1996. Its mission is to improve the quality of modern language learning and teaching in the Netherlands. The bureau's activities not only concern the school sector (primary, secondary and higher education), but also include foreign language teaching in trade and industry as well as some general language policy issues. 

The most distinctive and perhaps the most important feature of the Bureau is its independent position. NaB-MVT has created networks of practitioners in the field or participates in them. It initiates all kind of activities and thus creates synergy between them.