Belgique

The OECD Territorial Review of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium, provides an in-depth assessment of the trends, challenges and opportunities for sustainable and inclusive urban development in the region. It aims to help tackle the so-called ‘Brussels paradox’ between a highly performing region in terms of economic wealth creation and competitiveness but relatively poor social conditions. The region is also grappling with a shortage of affordable and quality housing, as well as several mobility challenges, including a high reliance on individual cars and traffic congestion, resulting in high commuting times and pollution levels, despite good accessibility to public transport. Although a comprehensive urban and land-use planning system exists, there is a lack of co-ordination with the surrounding regions and municipalities to drive more effective policies on housing, mobility, and other infrastructure investments. This review also examines the governance and institutional framework and suggests policy actions to strengthen co-ordination and co-operation mechanisms, and promote incremental collaboration at the metropolitan level. Finally, the review provides recommendations to enhance public finances in the region, focusing on better compensating for its additional charges, co-ordinating public investment among levels of government more efficiently, and establishing a metropolitan fund.

This report addresses housing inequities through a series of analytical chapters and case studies. The cross-country chapters examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on housing demand, develop a proposal for a green land value tax, evaluate the dynamics between fiscal autonomy and housing supply responsiveness, as well as explore the drivers of inter-regional migration. The case studies unravel the changes of Korea's progressive national property tax and a programme to address regional imbalances, assess the impact of the US property tax system on housing, dive into Norway's property taxation in relation to inequality, as well as survey Belgium's approaches to housing policy. With a blend of empirical data and critical analysis, the report underscores the pressing need for comprehensive strategies in addressing housing inequities. It also offers insights for policymakers and scholars, highlighting the complex balance between national and local housing policies.

Au cours de la dernière décennie, le marché du travail de la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale s’est amélioré. De nombreuses offres de travail ouvrent des possibilités pour des travailleurs hautement qualifiés, faisant de la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale une destination importante pour les talents belges, européens et internationaux. Or, malgré les perspectives de carrière offertes par la région, un nombre important de résidents est exclu du monde du travail. Les travailleurs moins diplômés se font concurrence pour un nombre de postes limités, en dépit des pénuries observées sur le marché du travail. Les facteurs qui mènent à l’exclusion de certains bruxellois et les solutions pour y remédier, doivent être un pilier de toute vision d’avenir de la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale. Le marché du travail bruxellois récompense la formation. Faciliter l’accès aux formations disponibles en Région est donc une priorité, notamment pour qu’elles soient adaptées aux différents besoins de la population. Réduire les entraves à la formation est un autre levier d’action. Pour le service public de l'emploi, la simplification des parcours, la mobilité géographique des chercheurs d’emplois moins diplômés et une meilleure prise en compte de la dimension migratoire de l'exclusion peuvent, chacune à leur manière, aider un plus grand nombre de bruxellois à trouver un emploi de qualité.

Les politiques d’entrepreneuriat plus inclusives contribuent à l’innovation, la création d’emploi, et la croissance économique. La crise du COVID-19, a accentué les disparités en Wallonie et la région porte un intérêt croissant à renforcer le soutien à l’entrepreneuriat inclusif de groupes particulièrement désavantagés, notamment celui des immigrés et des personnes en situation de handicap. Ce rapport résume les conclusions d'un projet d’examen de la politique d'entrepreneuriat inclusif de la Wallonie. Il présente une analyse des forces et des faiblesses du système de soutien aux entrepreneurs immigrés ou en situation de handicap (aussi appelés « handipreneurs ») en Wallonie et propose des actions politiques concrètes qui permettraient d’améliorer le soutien offert à ces entrepreneurs. L’analyse est basée sur le cadre conceptuel et les outils développés par l’OCDE et la Commission Européenne, notamment l’outil « Better Entrepreneurship Policy Tool ». Le rapport s’appuie également sur la consultation d’un large panel d’acteurs locaux, un travail de recherche approfondi et une analyse de bonnes pratiques internationales.

Cultural and creative sectors are a significant driver of local development both through direct job creation and income generation but also indirectly by spurring innovation across the economy. Beyond their economic impacts, they also have significant social impacts, from supporting health and well-being to promoting social inclusion and local social capital. Flanders (Belgium) has placed cultural and creative sectors as a priority in the region’s economic and social strategy. This paper provides an overview of cultural and creative sectors in Flanders, highlighting trends in employment, business dynamics, entrepreneurship and financing as well as cultural participation. It offers analysis and recommendations to support the region in continuing to build on its local cultural and creative ecosystem.

OECD countries deliver publicly-funded employment services through different institutional arrangements. While in most OECD countries the majority of such services are delivered by public employment services, in two in five OECD and EU countries (or regions) they are partly or fully contracted out to external providers, including for-profit and not-for-profit entities. Contracting out employment services to outside providers offers many potential benefits: an increased flexibility to scale capacity in line with changes in unemployment, the possibility of offering services more cost-effectively, the option to better tailor services through the use of specialised service providers and the possibility to offer jobseekers choice of providers. However, achieving these benefits will depend on the actual design and monitoring of the contracting arrangements that are put in place. Focusing on the job brokerage, counselling and case-management employment services typically provided by public agencies, this paper reviews the experiences of OECD countries that have contracted out employment services through outcome-based payment schemes. It highlights the need to carefully consider questions related to the design and implementation of this form of contracting: fostering competition amongst potential providers, setting appropriate minimum service requirements and prices for different client groups, and ensuring the accountability of providers through monitoring and evaluations. These issues are discussed based on country examples, which are also detailed in factsheets contained in the online annex of the paper.

This policy brief discusses recent international policy experiences in developing e-learning and digital business diagnostic tools for entrepreneurs. E-learning tools can develop entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and competences among users and increase their confidence and success in business creation. Business diagnostic tools offer entrepreneurs ways to assess their business management practices against peer companies or good practices, building competence and diffusing good practice. This brief sets out considerations for the successful development and implementation of these tools. It presents eight international cases of tools and discusses the public policy lessons from these international experiences.

Ce rapport est une édition spéciale du Tableau de bord de l’OCDE sur le financement des PME et des entrepreneurs, publication phare de l’OCDE. Il examine en détail les conséquences du COVID-19 sur l’accès des PME au financement, ainsi que les mesures prises en conséquence par les pouvoirs publics. Il apparaît qu’avant la crise, les conditions de financement étaient globalement favorables pour les PME et les entrepreneurs, qui bénéficiaient de faibles taux d’intérêt, de critères accommodants d’octroi des crédits et d’une offre de plus en plus diversifiée d’instruments de financement. Mais la crise du COVID‑19 a profondément bouleversé l’accès des PME au financement. Plus particulièrement, l’effondrement brutal du chiffre d’affaires des entreprises a provoqué de graves pénuries de liquidités qui ont mis en danger la survie de bon nombre d’entreprises viables. Ce rapport fait état d’une augmentation de la demande de prêts bancaires au cours du premier semestre de 2020, et d’une stabilité de l’offre de crédit grâce à l’action des pouvoirs publics. Parallèlement, on a observé un recul d’autres sources de financement, en particulier l’apport de fonds propres au stade du démarrage. Le rapport réunit des données sur le périmètre et l’ampleur des mesures prises par les gouvernements dans le monde, et en précise les principales caractéristiques. Il décrit les principaux enjeux stratégiques du financement des PME qui se poseront au cours des prochaines phases de la pandémie ; il s’agira en effet d’éviter le surendettement des PME, de promouvoir une gamme diversifiée d’instruments de financement, de stimuler la création d’entreprises et de renforcer la résilience des PME par des mesures structurelles.

Global demographic, climate and digitalisation megatrends are transforming the policy environment in Flanders, Belgium. With strong economic performance, low unemployment and a well-educated population, Flanders is using the SDGs to respond to these megatrends in pursuit of the seven transition priorities outlined in its Vision 2050 policy framework, namely circular economy, smart living, industry, lifelong learning, caring and living together, transport and mobility, and energy. The SDGs provide a common language and framework to mobilise Flemish cities and municipalities, private sector, civil society and youth in such a transition. This is why, Flanders has also developed Focus 2030 with more concrete and mid-term objectives to adapt and implement the SDGs at regional level. The report argues that a territorial approach to the SDGs can accelerate the transition to more sustainable pathways in Flanders if federal, regional, provincial and local sustainable development strategies are strategically aligned, and sufficient funding from both public and private sectors is ensured for innovative sustainability solutions.

The design of intergovernmental fiscal relations can help to ensure that tax and spending powers are assigned in a way to promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth. Decentralisation can enable sub-central governments to provide better public services for households and firms, while it can also make intergovernmental frameworks more complex, harming equity. The challenges of fiscal federalism are multi-faceted and involve difficult trade-offs. This synthesis paper consolidates much of the OECD’s work on fiscal federalism over the past 15 years, with a particular focus on OECD Economic Surveys. The paper identifies a range of good practices on the design of country policies and institutions related strengthening fiscal capacity delineating responsibilities across evels of government and improving intergovernmental co-ordination.