GEW Malaysia 2020: The Belgian market - can Malaysian companies penterate the market?

Economically, Belgium is extremely vibrant. Its market is highly accessible and outward-looking, making Belgium the natural choice for the headquarters or permanent secretariat of more than 1,000 government or private international organisations (SHAPE, NATO and Benelux, for example).

The country’s international appeal comes from its proximity to international decision-making centres, a highly developed logistics infrastructure, its multilingualism and the flexibility of its workforce. The country ranks 13th in the world for product exports and 12th in the world for service exports.

Exporters can penetrate the Belgian market through importers/distributors, wholesalers or specialized retailers, depending on their products and their company size. They can penetrate the Belgian market through importers/distributors, wholesalers or specialized retailers, depending on their products and their company size.

Apart from that, in order to succeed in doing business here, it is imperative to take some cultural differences between Belgium and other countries into account. It would, after all, be a pity if those unwritten rules worked against you when negotiating.