284th Top Management Club Meeting was held on Monday, March 17, 2008 at the IMM Convention Centre. H.E. Mr. Jean M. Deboutte, Ambassador of Belgium gave presentation on “ Belgium, Brussels, the EU and much more.” Hon’ble Prof. Panjab Singh, Vice-Chancellor, Banaras Hindu University, chaired the session.
Dr. Jagjit Singh, Founder & Executive President, IMM welcomed the Chief Guest, chairperson and guests to the Top Management Club meeting. During his presentation, H.E. Mr. Jean M. Debouttee mentioned that Belgium is located at the very heart of an area where 60% of Europe’s purchasing power and 30% of EU consumers are concentrated. London and Paris are 374 and 300 miles away from Brussels. Belgium work force is highly educated. They are qualified in engineering, finance and other subjects. Labour productivity per person employed during 2006, was 131.40. Hour worked per year are 1760, where as highest working hours achieved are 1897 by Switzerlnd. Belgium export in 2006 amounted to $369.0 billion in value, more than 94% in Belgium GDP. Belgium is very favourable for doing business having 19 ranking in 178 countries. In the world ranking of most expensive office location Brussels occupies 49th place. Paris, Dublin, Frankfurt, Genewa, Munich and Luxemburg are all in the top15. Belgium is considered one of the most popular destinations for foreign investment, having 5.2% market share in top 10 European locations.
The latest world investment report 2007 by the UNCTAD ranked Belgium as the fourth destination for foreign investment worldwide, one place ahead of China. Belgium has 2.9% of export in world market share. Besides having attractive tax regime, Belgium was ranked 17th in the UN Human Development Index (HDI) 2007, a comparative measure of wealth, literacy, education, life expectancy and other quality of life factors for countries worldwide. Belgium is the 9th EU country ex-acquo with UK.
Prof. Panjab Singh, Vice–Chancellor of BHU outlined the broad scenario of Indian agriculture and deplicting percentage contribution of Indian agriculture towards GDP. He mentioned the major issues being faced by Indian Agriculture today.
Mementos were given to H.E. Mr. Jean M. Deboutte, Ambassador of Belgium and Prof. Panjab Singh, Vice-Chancellor, Banaras Hindu University for their gracious presence. On behalf of IMM, Dr. Jagjit Singh thanked the Belgium Ambassador, Prof. Panjab Singh and other guests.
