A glance at the economic history of Belgium shows swings between the two halves of the country, Dutch-speaking Flanders in the north and French-speaking Wallonia in the south. “The gap is not narrowing. The Netherlands has a market economy, but the state traditionally has been a significant participant in such fields as transportation, resource extraction, and heavy industry. The port of Antwerp is now the second largest in Europe, while its entrepreneurship, its education system, and its worker ethos began to pay off. // googletag.pubads().collapseEmptyDivs(); Worldwide, only Singapore, the United States and Hong Kong are more competitive. At the same time, industry in Flanders flourished. Textile manufacturing, shipbuilding, and aircraft construction were important historically, but employment in those sectors has greatly declined. But Dutch is also an official language nearer to the Netherlands, in Belgium. Swenden says the reversal in economic fortunes has fed Flemish separatist sentiment “It feels economic growth hemmed in by a more reactionary, socialist neighbour,” he says. // // adslot0 = googletag.defineSlot('/312997750/Super_Billboard_1', [[970, 250], [1230, 250]], 'div-gpt-ad-1555597002018-0').setTargeting("test","infinitescroll"). Since World War II, the Netherlands has been a highly industrialized country occupying a central position in the economic life of western Europe. French is spoken in Wallonia (red). Prime Minister Charles MICHEL's center-right government has pledged to further reduce the deficit in response to EU pressure to decrease Belgium's high public debt of about 104% of GDP, but such efforts would also dampen economic growth. Swenden says it is an improvement, but it is not enough. Among the country’s other resources are zinc, extracted at Budel, sodium at Delfzijl, and magnesium at Veendam. This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or … // googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest(); The Netherlands, the sixth-largest economy in the European Union, plays an important role as a European transportation hub, with a consistently high trade surplus, stable industrial relations, and low unemployment. Belgium. These corporatist arrangements were substantially deregulated in the 1980s as neoliberal, market-oriented policies were carried out. // addSize([1100, 200], [[1024,250], 'fluid']). Meat and eggs are produced in intensively farmed livestock holdings, where enormous numbers of pigs, calves, and poultry are kept in large sheds and fed mainly on imported fodder. While Dutch was acknowledged in the new Belgian constitution, French de facto remained the only language for education, politics, military, business and religion.