Economy:
The city has a strong economy that is responsible for producing some 15 per cent of the country's GDP. The majority of foreign companies with a presence in Belgium have their headquarters in Brussels as do many of the country's domestic companies. For example, AT&T, Belgacom, Hewlett Packard, IBM, PriceWaterhouse-Coopers, Procter & Gamble, Sony, Toyota and Volkswagen are all based in the city.

A large amount of the Brussels economic activity is centred around its tertiary sector and, in particular, the thriving financial market, which is one of the largest in the world. The city has its own stock exchange, created in 1801, and is home to more than 60 foreign banks as well as numerous insurance and leasing companies. The number of call centres in the capital has also been growing, spurred on no doubt by the multilingual nature of the Brussels workforce. The city is also one of Europe's top congresses and conference locations. Despite the dominance of the service sector, Brussels remains the country's second most important industrial region after Antwerp, with manufacturing in the high technology sectors becoming increasingly important.

Local Infrastructure:
Brussels has excellent facilities for transport both within the city and to the rest of the world. Extremely efficient Metro, tram and bus networks criss cross the city and four main train stations provide access to the suburbs. The Eurostar passenger train links Brussels directly with London, via the Channel Tunnel in less than two hours, while Brussels Charleroi Airport and Brussels international airport offer flights throughout Europe and the rest of the world. The city also benefits from its own port, which handles in the region of 6,500 tons of cargo per annum.

Local workforce:
The city has a large multi-lingual workforce, which is bolstered by the fact that about one third are foreign nationals, mostly from within the European Union. Furthermore, workers in Brussels are generally highly skilled and technically proficient. Since much of the city's economy relies on such workers, people with low levels of skill can experience difficulty in finding employment. Coupled with the fact that most of the country's asylum seekers - who under legislation passed in 2000 are entitled to seek work - reside in Brussels, the city's unemployment levels are consistently above the national average.

Standard of Living:
In the quality of life report published by Mercer Human Resource Consulting in 2002, Brussels was ranked tenth in the EU and fifteenth in the world with 103.5 points, compared to 106.5 points for the first placed city of Zurich. In the same report, Frankfurt was ranked sixth in the world with 105 points, Munich was tenth with 104.5 points, points and London was ranked forty-first with 100 points. The report evaluates cities against 39 criteria such as political, social, economic and environmental factors as well as personal safety, health, education, transport and several other public services. For environmental factors such as air pollution and cleanliness, Brussels was ranked eighth in the EU and fifty-fifth in the world.

Business costs:
Office costs and industrial rents in Brussels are very competitive when compared with the costs in many prominent cities throughout Europe. In a report published by the international real estate advisory company DTZ in 2002, the total office occupancy cost in Brussels is approximately 275.52 euros per metre squared per annum, compared with a cost of 1496.32 euros for London, 826.56 euros for Paris, 672 euros for Frankfurt and 414.4 euros for Munich. This report considered a variety of factors such as maintenance costs and property taxes in addition to rent. Furthermore, according to data for 2001, published in an annual report by international property consultant Healey & Baker, prime industrial rents in Brussels averaged 55 euros per metre squared per annum, while rent in London, Heathrow was 213 euros, rent in Frankfurt was 92 euros, rent in Munich was 86 euros and rent in Paris was 69 euros.