Aid |
Aid quality is just as important as aid quantity, so the CDI measures gross aid as a share of GDP adjusted for various quality factors: it subtracts debt service, penalizes “tied” aid that makes recipients spend aid only on donor goods and services, rewards aid to poor but relatively well-governed recipients, and penalizes overloading poor governments with many small projects.
Belgium’s aid performance
Strengths
- Prevents project proliferation; large average project size (rank: 5)
- Large amount of private charitable giving attributable to tax policy (rank by share of GDP: 7)
- High net aid volume as a share of the economy (0.52%; rank: 8)
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Trade
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International trade has been a force for economic development for centuries. The CDI measures trade barriers in rich countries against exports from developing countries.
Belgium’s trade performance
Strengths
- Low tariffs on textiles (6.4% of the value of imports; rank: 3)
- Low tariffs on apparel (6.4% of the value of imports; rank: 3)
- High level of manufactures imports from poorer countries (10.1% of GDP per capita; rank: 4)
Weaknesses
- High agricultural subsidies (equivalent to a tariff worth 13.2% of the value of imports; rank: 20)
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Investment
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Rich-country investment in poorer countries can transfer technologies, upgrade management and create jobs. The CDI includes a checklist of policies that support healthy investment in developing countries.
Belgium’s investment performance
Strengths
- Employs foreign tax credits to prevent double taxation of corporate profits earned abroad
- Particularly active in Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the Kimberley Process on blood diamonds
Weaknesses
- Denies foreign investors many tax benefits in developing countries
- Loopholes in domestic legislation permit bribe payers to circumvent the OECD Convention on Bribery
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Migration
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The movement of people from poor to rich countries provides unskilled immigrants with jobs, income and knowledge. This increases the flow of money sent home by migrants abroad and the transfer of skills when the migrants return home.
Belgium’s migration performance
Strengths
- Bears share of the burden of refugees during humanitarian crises (rank: 9)
- Moderate number of immigrants from developing countries entering Belgium (rank by share of population: 11)
Weaknesses
- Small share of foreign students from developing countries (35%; rank: 23)
- Only a small increase during the 1990s in the number of unskilled immigrants from developing countries living in Belgium (rank by share of population: 17)
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Environment
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Rich countries use a disproportionate amount of scarce resources, and poor countries are most vulnerable to global warming and ecological deterioration, so the CDI measures the impact of policies on the global climate, fisheries and biodiversity.
Belgium’s environment performance
Strengths
- Low fossil fuel production rate per capita (0.0 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank: 1)
- Low consumption of ozone-depleting chemicals per capita (rank: 1)
Weaknesses
- High greenhouse gas emissions rate per capita (12.6 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent; rank: 19)
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Security
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Since security is a prerequisite for development, the CDI rewards contributions to internationally sanctioned peacekeeping operations and forcible humanitarian interventions, rewards military protection of global sea lanes, and penalizes arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments.
Belgium’s security performance
Strengths
- Participates in major international security treaties and regimes
Weaknesses
- High arms exports to poor and undemocratic governments (rank by share of GDP: 21)
- Small financial and personnel contributions to internationally sanctioned peacekeeping and humanitarian interventions over last decade (rank by share of GDP: 18)
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Technology
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Rich countries contribute to development through the creation and dissemination of new technologies. The CDI captures this by measuring government support for R&D and penalizing strong intellectual property rights regimes that limit the dissemination of new technologies to poor countries.
Belgium’s technology performance
Strengths
- Low share of government R&D expenditure on defense (rank by share of GDP: 6)
- Provides patent exceptions for research purposes
Weaknesses
- Low government support for R&D (rank: 17)
- Offers patent-like proprietary rights to developers of data compilations, including those assembled from data in the public domain
- Pushes to incorporate into bilateral free trade agreements “TRIPS-Plus” measures that restrict the flow of innovations to developing countries
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