Transcript Belgium: gateway to Europe

Belgium :
gateway to Europe
An overview of
the Belgian economy
By Philippe Donnay,
Economic advisor
Federation of Enterprises in Belgium
Belgium : Gateway to Europe
1. Belgium, at the heart of Europe
2. “State of the art”-infrastructure
3. A multilingual, well-educated and motivated workforce
4. An open and attractive economy
Belgium: at the heart of Europe
United
Kingdom
Netherlands
Germany
Luxembourg
France
Belgium: at the heart of Europe
Brussels
•
capital of Belgium
•
capital of the EU
•
headquarters of NATO
•
1,700 European headquarters
of MNOs
•
world’s fourth international
meetings and conferences
center
•
second largest concentration
of journalists in the world
Belgium: at the heart of Europe
Belgium is at the heart of :
 three cultures,
 the Europe of the 15,
 a 370 million Consumers Market.
Do you know that
60% of the European
market is located at
less then one
driving day ?
Belgium : Gateway to Europe
1. Belgium, at the heart of Europe
2. “State of the art”-infrastructure
3. A multilingual, well-educated and motivated workforce
4. An open and attractive economy
A Highly Developped Road Network
4,86
Belgium
4.0
The Netherlands
3,07
Japan
1,77
Germany
France
1,62
United Kingdom
1,62
Ireland
1,32
Spain
1,31
0,65
USA
0,52
Sweden
0
1
2
Source: Competitiveness Yearbook 2003
3
4
5
Road Infrastructure
Density Km/sq.Km
A Dense Railway network
USA= base 100
474
Belgium
430
Germany
The Netherlands
288
United Kingdom
285
France
227
Japan
227
Ireland
117
Spain
117
Sweden
104
USA
100
0
100
200
300
400
500
Railway network
Density /sq.km
Source: Competitiveness Yearbook 2003
Air Infrastructure
Numerous intra-European and inter-continental air connections
– Zaventem
worldwide passenger and cargo services
• Brussels Airport
– Bruges Airport
mainly cargo services
• Ostend
• Deurne Airport
European passenger services (e.g. London, Berlin, Dublin,
Geneva)
• Liege Airport
top ten European air freight hub (380 000 T handled in 2003)
• Charleroi Airport
passenger terminal; hub a.o. to Ryan Air
Water Infrastructure
Water Infrastructure
•
Antwerp
2nd largest port in Europe, 4th largest worldwide
(140 mln. tonnes of cargo/year)
Largest petrochemical complex in Europe, 2nd largest
worldwide
•
Zeebruges
Leading port in the car sector (1 577 618 cars)
•
Ghent
23,9 mln. tonnes seaborne cargo traffic (wide variety of cargo)
•
Ostend
Handling goods and passenger services
•
Liège
Second largest European River Port (27 mio T loaded/unloaded
2002)
•
Brussels
Maritime harbour with ships up to 4,500 Tons
•
Strepy-Thieu
Most advanced boat lift - 1.1350 t
Belgium : Gateway to Europe
1. Belgium, at the heart of Europe
2. “State of the art”-infrastructure
3. A multilingual, well-educated and motivated workforce
4. An open and attractive economy
Multilingual Workforce
90
100
80
80
60
40
90
73
55
38
44
12
10
B
el
gi
um
D
Th
en
e
m
N
ar
et
k
he
rl
an
ds
Fr
an
ce
Ir
el
an
d
14
Source: OCDE 2000
Germanic
25
28
20
0
Anglosaxon
70
16
Romanic
5
Quadrilingual
Trilingual
Bilingual
Ability to Recruit New Talents
Is it easy to have access to a skilled labor force in your region ?
7,29
7,19
7,08
USA
Ireland
Germany
7,03
7.00
Japan
Belgium
6,83
6,58
France
Sweden
6,37
6,16
Spain
The Netherlands
5,27
United Kingdom
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
(Out of 10)
Source: Competitiveness Yearbook 2003
Absenteeism
Absenteeism rate in % of hours normally worked
4
The Netherlands
2,6
United Kingdom
2,1
France
1,9
Portugal
Spain
1,8
1,6
Germany
1,2
Italy
0,9
Belgium
0
Source:Eurostat
1
2
3
4
5
Belgium : Gateway to Europe
1. Belgium, at the heart of Europe
2. “State of the art”-infrastructure
3. A multilingual, well-educated and motivated workforce
4. An open and attractive economy
Belgium: hub of Europe
Importance of foreign trade
95
Belgium
85
% of GDP
75
65
55
45
35
EU
25
1995
1996
Exports
1997
1998
1999
2000
Imports
2001
Top five export nations in 2003 (bn EUR)
Exports of Belgium
42,45
1. Germany
37,16
2. France
26,61
3. Netherlands
21,95
4. UK
17,78
5. U.S.A.
Top five export products in 2003 (in %)
22,18
1. Chemicals and
pharmaceuticals
14,41
2. Transport
equipment
13,54
3. Machinery and
equipment
4. Plastics
5. Diamonds and
precious metals
13,4
10,7
Belgium : A wealthy country
110
105
100
Belgium
France
Germany
Italy
EU-15
EU-25
95
90
85
80
75
70
GDP per capita (EU-15 = 100)
Many Fiscal Opportunities
For Foreign Investors
… ON ALL LEVELS OF YOUR INVESTMENT
France
Germany
United Kingdom
Netherlands
Ireland
Luxemburg
Belgium
Denmark
Effective
tax rates
2001
Sweden
Italy
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Source : The Effective Tax Burden of Companies in the Member states of
EU Source : Baker & MçKenzie 2000
 The Corporation
 Real estate and equipment
depreciation system
 Special tax agreements:
fiscal rulings
 Low effective corporate tax rate:
many tax rebates applicable and as
from 1-1-2006 : notional interest
deduction
 The Shareholder
 no taxation on capital gain
 The Management
 attractive fiscal system for
expatriates
Notional interest deduction
• A new innovative tax feature in international
tax low
• What is it ?
– A notional interest calculated and deducted yearly
from the taxable basis
– Used to off-set operational or financial income
(lower effective tax rate)
– Automatically applicable to all Belgian companies
and branches of foreign companies
Notional interest deduction
• Reduce the tax discrimination between
debt-financing and equity-financing
• Lower the effective corporate tax rate
for all companies (higher after-tax return
on investment)
• Strenghthen the financial position of
companies and branches by increasing
their equity
Notional interest deduction
• How does it work ?
Annual Tax Deduction
=
Equity x Rate
Made in Belgium
Producer of the largest number of cars per capita in
the EU.
The world's second largest petrochemical centre.
One third of all dredging work in the world done by
Belgian companies.
The world's leading exporter of synthetic carpets.
By far the world's largest diamond centre.
Belgian fashion is recognized on the
international scene.
Renowned all over the world for chocolates,
biscuits, beer and endives.