BRUSSELS SOFTWARE CLUSTER - Bruxelles Invest & Export

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SOFTwARE IndUSTRy
In the BruSSelS-CapItal
regIon
SOFTWARE IN BRUSSELS
he Brussels-Capital region with its central location
in Europe has an intensive economic activity
(Brussels produces about 20% of the Belgian
gross national product). The Region has about
one million inhabitants (about 9% of the population
of Belgium) of whom approximately 40% are
non-Belgians. Even though Brussels has a total
surface area of 162 km² (about 0.5 % of the total
area of Belgium) and about one-third of Belgium’s
global ICT activities is concentrated in the region.
Brussels-based ICT companies have a proven track
record of delivering state-of-the-art solutions that
are commercial winners and a particular success
with applications for niche markets. The ICT sector
in Brussels is significantly growing with the presence
of large ICT multinationals as well as many
small high tech companies. As Capital of Europe,
Brussels offers real business opportunities to its
ICT companies. The dynamism of the ICT sector in
Brussels also results from a proactive approach
developed by the Region in order to support innovation,
competitiveness and employment.
the ICt Sector in Belgium and
the Brussels-Capital region
ICT companies significantly contribute to a country’s
economy, either directly or indirectly. They
lead to the creation of jobs and increases in productivity,
added value and exports. As such, in
Belgium the ICT sector’s contribution to growth is
estimated at 20%. About one third of this percentage
is generated in the Brussels Region, which has
unique growth potential thanks to the high concentration
of ICT companies and its central location
in Belgium.
The ICT sector in Brussels is clearly growing.
According to Agoria, the ICT sector in Brussels
hired actually 20.000 people, which accounts 5 % of
jobs in the private sector and the job opportunities
have increased of 11% which is relatively more than
in the two other regions.
The Brussels regional government strongly supports
the ICT sector in Brussels, and the region’s
Contract for Economy and Employment designates
the ICT sector as one of the three key innovative
sectors in Brussels.
As indicated in the Regional Plan for Innovation, the
ICT (Information and Communication Technologies)
business unit of the Brussels Enterprise Agency
has been requested by the Brussels Region to set
up and manage clusters in order to increase synergies
between the different ICT players.
A global, coherent ICT policy focused on training
ICT professionals through the creation of the ICT
reference centre “Evoliris”, the strengthening of
financial aid and reduction of taxes (elimination of
the PC tax), accompany these actions.
the Software Industry
The software industry is composed of all the companies
that develop and market software. In general,
it includes software production and software
distribution but may also incorporate software services
such as consulting, documentation, training
and maintenance. Software product firms earn at
least 60 to 80 % of their revenues from developing
software, licensing it for sale and receiving maintenance
fees for updating that software.
The software industry is divided in two big categories:
systems and application software. Systems
software includes operating systems (bios, desktop
environment), network and database management,
devices drivers, development tools (text editors,
debuggers, compilers, etc), programming languages,
and other systems software. Application
software comprises general business productivity
(ERP, CRM, SCM, etc) and home use applications,
cross-industry and vertical market applications