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Primary sector (agriculture and fishing)
The land remains the same, but the means by which it is worked are changing. Increased production has also become a vital goal for farmers.
Small independant farmers are disappearing. Mechanization, new technologies and scientific agronomic research are making for higher yields. More is being produced on each field. Cowsheds are becoming bigger. Cattle rearing represents 63 % of 1993 agricultural production.
The horticultural sector (fruit, vegetables, flowers and plants,...) is growi...
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Industrial sector
Following the example of what has happened in a number of other developed countries, Belgian industry has in the course of the last thirty years, undergone profound changes : its predominance of economic activities has declined (45 % in 1960, 42 % in 1970 and 28 % in 1999) and its structure and spatial distribution have been transformed.
These upheavals have, in fact, occurred twice. From 1958 to 1974 was a period of economic growth and influx of massive foreign investment (principally Ame...
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Service sector
The growth of service industries is far from being exclusive to Belgium, and it affects all the regions of the country much more than does deindustrialization.
In fact, the service sector covers numerous and very heterogeneous activities, public as well as private, some being almost banal and present in nearly all inhabited areas and others being rare and restricted to the large centres. Almost half of this employment is in the public sector.
Moreover, in the development of the service ...
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Economy and employment 