Belgium: About Belgium - Part 2

From ExecutivePlanet.com

An introduction

Despite, or perhaps better, because of the potential for chaos within its politico-cultural structure, Belgium prospers. Belgians largely ignore the stifling bureaucracy and a central government that is often in a state of crisis because of its endless compromises. This characteristically Latin attitude towards the rulebook [and hence a flourishing black economy] is then combined with a more typically northern capacity for doing business. Indeed, Belgium is distinctly outward-looking: Antwerp, Bruges and Ghent have been important trading centres since the Middle Ages; Belgium was a founder member of the EEC in 1957; Brussels is the capital of the EU and the site of NATO headquarters; Belgium is the biggest exporter per capita in the EU, a founder member of the eurozone and an enthusiastic promoter of greater European integration. Though deeply traditional in many ways, Belgians are flexible and internationalist in outlook; though renowned for their enjoyment of the good things in life, Belgians quietly get on with earning the means that permits their high standard of living. Belgium may be small and internally complicated, but it is very definitely open for business.