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Brussels - Culture

BRUSSELS:
A Variety Of Cultures

BRUSSELS, A GOOD EUROPEAN

Brussels is the chosen headquarters of the many EC institutions - the Commission of the European Communities, the Secretariat of the Council of Ministers and the Economic and Social Committee. Much of the European Parliament's work is also done here through its committees, technical groups and, from time to time, extraordinary sessions of Parliament itself. The Region's planned "European district" currently under development in the very heart of the city, will make Brussels-Capital an even more "liveable and workable" region for Community institutions.

BRUSSELS, THE GLOBAL CITY

Brussels has one eye on Europe, the other on the world, with 159 Embassies and 2,500 accredited diplomats. The Region also holds the much-envied world record of being the chosen location for the headquarters of around 1,000 international organizations. Foreign companies have been quick to appreciate Brussels' international role - around 1,700 of them have settled in the Brussels Region, including 700 American firms. The same holds true of the banking world: Brussels has 60 foreign banks, helping to make it the world's 7th biggest financial marketplace and its foremost hub for trade.

BRUSSELS, LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

The Region's outward-looking view on the world also extends to education: the European School has 5,500 children of 56 nationalities; the International School of Brussels has pupils from 51 different nationalities. Not to mention its universities and national educational establishments which also host many foreign students, or the 6foreign schools located in Brussels, the Lycée Français, American School and Japanese School amongst them. Greater Brussels is busy working on its future by stimulating research. For their part, the city's universities are co-operating with certain companies. In 1988, the ULB (Universit Libre de Bruxelles) had some 200 contracts with industry alone, and the value of joint investments has doubled in four years. The UCL (Universit Catholique de Louvain) with its Louvain-en-Woluwe Brussels campus, has performed some 1,000 research contracts with the government and private institutions for a total of BF1,700 million. This interaction goes even further with the creation of industrial research zones where researchers come mainly from universities. The government has developed a computerised system to link all institutions of higher education. The pharmaceutical and chemical industries and software companies are working hand in hand with the three universities in Brussels, i.e. the UCL, the ULB, and its Dutch-speaking counterpart, the VUB (Vrije Universiteit Brussel). Combined with the intense intellectual and scientific life of its universities, these factors are added reasons why many a convention organiser opts for Brussels.

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