The local business fabric
Flemish Brabant is the most knowledge-intensive province in the country. Leuven revolves around KU Leuven, the university hospital and imec — one of the world's leading nanoelectronics research centres — surrounded by the Haasrode research park and a long line of spin-offs in semiconductors, software, medtech and materials. The western half tells a completely different story: the Brussels-Zaventem-Diegem-Vilvoorde corridor is a belt of headquarters, consulting firms, airport logistics and distribution centres, highly international and largely English-speaking. Between those poles sits ordinary Flemish Brabant: builders, installers, wholesalers, professional practices and shops in Tienen, Diest, Aarschot, Halle and the periphery. A KU Leuven spin-off and an installer from Tienen live in different worlds, yet both have to explain what they do to someone who does not get it — a communication problem before it is a technical one.