Excerpted from the Belgium Career Guide
Belgium is a modern, wired country with a nationwide cellular telephone system and extensive cable network. Network provider Belgacom recently announced all customers will be provided with 3G wireless access without additional cost. Belgians also love to shop on the Internet. Most recent figures report they spent more than 1.118 billion EUR in online purchases last year, up nearly 24 percent from a year ago.
The World Economic Forum's latest Global Information Technology Report ranks Belgium 23rd for the most wired economy in its 'Networked Readiness Index.’Belgium's IT sector contributes more than 4 percent of the GDP, and 20 percent of the country’s economic growth. Belgium ranks in 22nd place worldwide in the latest IT Industry Competitiveness Index. In order to increase the attractiveness of this sector, the government exempts IT researchers from certain social security contributions and taxes.
Areas of Job Promise
According to technical worker’s federation Agoria, nearly 150,000 Belgians work in some aspect of the ICT industry. This is an increase of 15,000 over the past five years. As of this writing, there are more than 8,000 vacancies in the ICT fields.
The most sought after specialties include:
- business analysts and consultants
- ICT sales and marketing people
- infrastructure analysts and architects
- web designers and web developers
Organizations and Trade Associations
Agoria
http://www.agoria.be (Dutch, French, English)
Agoria is Belgium's largest employers' organization and trade association and is financed by member contributions. Its membership includes more than 1,600 companies in the technology industry. Agoria promotes its members' interests in Belgium and abroad and puts them in touch with potential partners across sectoral boundaries and national borders. This includes prospective customers, industry groups, engineering firms, decision makers, project leaders and purchasing managers.
Agoria Head Office
Diamant Building
Bd A. Reyers Ln 80
B-1030 Brussels
Tel: +32 2 706 78 00
Fax: +32 2 706 78 01
Email: ibd@agoria.be
Publications
Data News
http://datanews.rnews.be/ (Dutch, French)
Data News is a weekly paper targeted at IT professionals. The publication focuses on technology, e-business, networking, telecommunications, enterprise software, IT services and IT security. The website provides a number of articles, plus some useful guides that can be downloaded as PDFs – the ICT Top 1000 (1,000 Belgian ICT companies), the ICT guide and the ICT Services Guide. A fee is required for an annual subscription.
This is just a short sample of what you’ll find in over 100 pages of information in the complete Belgium Guide.
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