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Brussels, Belgium News About Brussels, Belgium Brussels has a strong economy that is responsible for producing some 15 per cent of Belgium'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. 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. Other Major Cities:
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