Industrial & Innovation Policy - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

BELGIUM

• Introduction
• Political System
• Economic Profile
• Industrial policies

Belgium in Europe

• Situated in the centre of Western Europe
• Very small: ca.32.500 km²
• Population: ca.10.000.000
• Capital: Brussels
• Neighbours: The Netherlands, Germany, France, Luxembourg & UK

• 1830: independence: unitary state
• BUT: language border! => Flanders / Wallonia / Oostkantons
• 5 state reforms
• 3 Communities
• 3 Regions

Federal state

+ 3 Regions

+ 3 Communities

10 Provinces

589 Communes

• Federal state:
• Everything that affects the interests of all belgians: foreign affairs, national defence, justice, finance,…
• Responsabilities vis-à-vis the EU and NATO
• Communities:
• Matters relating to the people: language, culture, education,…
• Regions:
• Territorial matters: town planning, employment, environment,…
• Foreign trade!!

 Problems!!!

• Geographical situation
• General Economics
• International cooperation
• Economic problems

• Lack of mountains + border to North Sea
• In the centre of the «industrial square»:Ruhr -- Randstad Holland -- Nord-Pas de Calais -- Lorraine-Saarland
• in the centre of European ”megalopolis” , a major urban and economic corridor (Liverpool – Genua)

• real economic grotwh 2003: 1,0%
• inflation 2003: 1,3%
• GDP per capita: > 13% => relative wealth
• revenue per worker: 62.560 € (20% higher than EU average)

Belgium

EU average

Export (% of GDP)

76,5 %

32,2 %

Import (% of GDP)

72,9 %

31,0 %

• 50% of export: neighbours
• 25% of export: other EU members
• Foreign investment!
• Ups and downs of economy –-- fluctuations of our neigbours

• 40% of export: 3 large groups
• Transport equipment
• Machinery & appliances
• Chemical & pharmaceutical products
• Other 60%: large variety
• Diamonds, carpets, comic books & childrens books, linen, flowers (azalea & begonia), beer, chocolate,…

• prosperity = dependent on external trade => active part in intern. cooperation
• BLEU
• Benelux (+ Benelux Trademark Office)
• One of the 6 founder countries of ECSC, EEC & Eurotam
• pro european unification!

• Unemployement
• 14 % of active population
• High wage cost, high labour cost, structural problems of Labour market
• 200.000 new jobs <-> - 4.000 Ford
• Administrative burden
• Costs for administrative tasks: 3,4% of GDP
• Lack of entrepreneurship!
• ”state secretary of administrative simplification”
• Government deficit
• Welfare state

• Government deficit
• Extreme until 1993
• Draconian rehabilitation plans
• government debt/GDP ratio: 110.6%

• Administrative burden
• Costs for administrative tasks: 3,4% of the GDP (around 9 billion €)
• Lack of entrepreneurship!
• ”state secretary of administrative simplification”

• Welfare state
• Ageing populiton => not engough money to pay pensions
• ”Early retirement” at 55 (even 50)

• Belgian industry in general
• Regional policy
• Kortrijk-region --- Flanders Language Valley
• Euregio Maas-Rhine
• Flemish Diamond

• Industrial sector:
• 1/4e of all jobs
• 30% of added value
• Major regional contrasts
• North: industrialised
• Antwerp: chemical sectors
• Ghent, Zeebrugge, Brussels
• Central Flanders, Kortrijk-region, North-east
• South: not industrialised at all (anymore)

• De-industrialisation & Teriarisation
• structure of industrial activity has changed a lot
• De-industrialisation since 50s:
• 1957-1992: all 120 coalmines have been shut down (in Flanders)
• Production of steel (Wallonia) almost entirely stopped
• decline in jobs compensated by development in tertiary sector

• Complex structure + different cultures => no single industrial policy
• Stimulation of regional development within different Communities & Regions
• Wallonia: after decline of steel production: ??
• Flanders: certain regions developed
• 70s – 80s: Euregio Maas-Rhine
• Early 90s: Kortrijk-region
• Late 90s: Flemish Diamond

• Light industries, SMEs, local management
• Part: ”Flanders Language Valley” (speech tech)
• Cluster of localised technological change
• After Sillicon Valley-model: strong pilote firm, venture capital, education, informal networking
• L&H research lab: a common source of codified knowledge
• Fast entrepreneurial reaction => developing broad range of applications
• Favourable communication conditions  innovative linkages between SMEs

• Companies: mutual advantage:
• learn form each other
• Using common pools of resources in proximity
• E.g. employees in ”collective pools of labour” created by several education and training programmes
• But: owners of L&H: FRAUDE !
• Big scandal
• Technology sold to Americans
• FLV collapsed

Euregio Maas-Rhine

• Norhteast of Flanders, near Holland & Germany, near Maas and Rhine rivers
• Lagging region without industries
• 70s: development started, because in “New” Europe cross-border cooperation at local and regional level was becoming more important
• Agreement with Holland & Germany
• Large foreign companies ( <-> SMEs in FLV)
• Benefited from large amount of labour force

• Region in centre of Flanders,Antwerp – Ghent – Brussels – Leuven
• Urban network on international level
• Industrial economy => knowledge economy
• Knowledge = critical succes factor for the future
• Well-functioning urban network, modern infrastructure to transport goods and person are necessary
• Growth of Flanders depend on development of this diamond