Economy and Employment

As of its origin, the port platform of Brussels was designed as an economic development tool at the service of the region

To accommodate companies dependent on the use of the waterway, to ensure the urban supply in economic sectors as diverse as construction, international trade or catering trades, and finally to evacuate the residues of urban consumption. That is possible through the services present in the port: port land plots, storage areas, numerous logistics and transport providers, a container terminal, customs facilities, and so on and so forth.

Today, the Brussels port cluster consists of nearly 400 companies of all sizes generating some 12,000 direct and indirect jobs. About half of these companies are Port tenants, whether renting plots of land or warehouses: often based in the port for a long time, they employ 4,500 people on the site on a daily basis.

This port cluster offers diversified employment, proportionally a better provider than the Region in terms of under-qualified employment, for people under 25 years of age and for the inhabitants of Brussels, mainly in the industrial, logistics or transport sectors. It procures moreover more than a billion euros of added-value, assuming thus almost 2% of the wealth created by the Region.

Source: BNB/Actiris/Brussels Employment Observatory/European Social Fund (Dec. 2015)