"Hindu Forum of Belgium (HFB or FHB) was created by Hindu organisations in Belgium. It was launched on 16 March 2007 in Brussels. A handful of Indians work in the financial institutions based in Luxembourg, which boasts an Indian Association. As in the Netherlands, Belgians regularly adopt children from India. There are about 250 families engaged in diamond trade in Antwerp. Many of the other Indians living in Belgium are professionals employed with either multinational companies or other professional organisations. Indo-Belgian Association or InBelg has emerged as the largest Indian non-profit organization with more than 9000 people in it. The"
"Ledeberg, Mariakerke, Mendonk, Oostakker, Sint-Amandsberg, Sint-Denijs-Westrem, Sint-Kruis-Winkel, Wondelgem and Zwijnaarde. With 260,467 inhabitants in the beginning of 2018, Ghent is Belgium's second largest municipality by number of inhabitants. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of and has a total population of 594,582 as of 1 January 2008, which ranks it as the fourth most populous in Belgium. The current mayor of Ghent, Daniël Termont, leads a coalition of the Socialistische Partij Anders, Groen and Open VLD. The ten-day-long Ghent Festival (""Gentse Feesten"" in Dutch) is held every year and attended by about 1–1.5 million visitors."
"Ghent Ghent (; ; ) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the second largest municipality in Belgium, after Antwerp. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Leie and in the Late Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of northern Europe, with some 50,000 people in 1300. It is a port and university city. The municipality comprises the city of Ghent proper and the surrounding towns of Afsnee, Desteldonk, Drongen, Gentbrugge,"
"Antwerp Antwerp (, , ) is a city in Belgium, and is the capital of Antwerp province in Flanders. With a population of 520,504, it is the most populous city proper in Belgium. Its metropolitan area houses around 1,200,000 people, coming in second behind Brussels. Antwerp is on the River Scheldt, linked to the North Sea by the Westerschelde estuary. It is about north of Brussels, and about from the Dutch border. The Port of Antwerp is one of the biggest in the world, ranking second in Europe and within the top 20 globally. Antwerp was also the place of"
"are the Leuven Bears. They play their home games in the SportOase. The Cyclocross Leuven is a cyclo-cross race held in January. Leuven is twinned with: Aside from the aforementioned cities, Leuven has friendly relations with: Leuven Leuven () or Louvain (, ; ) is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic city and the former neighbouring municipalities of Heverlee, Kessel-Lo, a part of Korbeek-Lo, Wilsele and Wijgmaal. It is the eighth largest city in Belgium and the fourth in Flanders with more than"
"Ghent is twinned with: Ghent Ghent (; ; ) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the second largest municipality in Belgium, after Antwerp. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Leie and in the Late Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of northern Europe, with some 50,000 people in 1300. It is a port and university city. The municipality comprises the city of Ghent proper and the surrounding towns of"
"to the two other regions, and has a population of 1.2 million. The metropolitan area of Brussels counts over 2.1 million people, which makes it the largest in Belgium. It is also part of a large conurbation extending towards Ghent, Antwerp, Leuven and Walloon Brabant, home to over 5 million people. Brussels grew from a small rural settlement on the river Senne to become an important city-region in Europe. Since the end of the Second World War, it has been a major centre for international politics and the home of numerous international organisations, politicians, diplomats and civil servants. Brussels is"
"have repercussions for neighboring countries; uncertainties regarding federal and regional responsibilities (now resolved) have slowed progress in tackling environmental challenges. The main cities in Belgium in terms of population are Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi and Liège. Other notable cities include Bruges, Namur, Leuven, Mons and Mechelen. Geography of Belgium Belgium is a federal state located in Western Europe, bordering the North Sea. Belgium shares borders with France (556 km), Germany (133 km), Luxembourg (130 km) and the Netherlands (478 km). Belgium comprises the regions of Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels. Total renewable water resources: 18.3 cu km (2011) Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural):"
"and the government of the French Community. Brussels also has many commuters, with 230,000 coming from Flanders, and 130,000 from Wallonia. Much of the success of Brussels is based on the high educational skills of its workforce. As of July 2012, however, the statistical unemployment rate in Brussels was 20.6%. The port of Antwerp was in 2004 the second largest European sea port by cargo volume, and the Antwerp freight railway station accounts for one-third of Belgian freight traffic. Antwerp is the first diamond market in the world, diamond exports account for roughly 1/10 of Belgian exports. The Antwerp-based BASF"
"Leuven Leuven () or Louvain (, ; ) is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic city and the former neighbouring municipalities of Heverlee, Kessel-Lo, a part of Korbeek-Lo, Wilsele and Wijgmaal. It is the eighth largest city in Belgium and the fourth in Flanders with more than 100,244 inhabitants (Federal Ministry of Home Affairs, 1/11/2016). Leuven is home to the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, the largest and oldest university of the Low Countries and the oldest Catholic university still in existence. The related university"
"2001, Brussels had the fourth highest number of recorded crimes of European capitals (behind Stockholm, Amsterdam, and Berlin, and virtually on a par with Helsinki). According to the same source, Brussels had a rate of 10 murders or violent deaths per 100,000 citizens. Usually, serious safety issues in Brussels are mostly limited to residential boroughs with a low income population. These include notably Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Schaarbeek, Anderlecht, and Forest/Vorst. In November 2005, Brussels was very minorly affected by the spread of the French riots. Rioter of mainly North-African origin rioted in Brussels in September 2006. Belgium's second largest city, Antwerp, saw"
"Philips Medical, the Eindhoven University of Technology and the Maastricht University into biomedical science, technology and engineering. Eindhoven is twinned with: Eindhoven Eindhoven () is the fifth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands. It had a population of 229,126 in 2018, making it the largest city in the province of North Brabant, although 's-Hertogenbosch is its capital. Eindhoven was originally located at the confluence of the Dommel and Gender. Neighbouring cities and towns include Son en Breugel, Nuenen, Geldrop-Mierlo, Heeze-Leende, Waalre, Veldhoven, Eersel, Oirschot and Best. The agglomeration has a population of . The metropolitan area consists of inhabitants."
"connections to other cities, various organized boat trips for tourists connect Maastricht with Belgium cities such as Liège. These distances are as the crow flies and so do not represent actual overland distances. Maastricht is twinned with: In 2002 the municipal government officially adopted a local anthem (Limburgish (Maastrichtian variant): ""Mestreechs Volksleed"", ) composed of lyrics in Maastrichtian. The theme was originally written by Ciprian Porumbescu (1853–1883). Maastricht Maastricht (; Limburgish : ""Mestreech"" ; French: ""Maestricht"" ; Spanish: ""Mastrique"" ) is a city and a municipality in the southeast of the Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of"
"biggest part of Belgium by area, is the area with the largest population (68.5%). 7,876,873 out of 11,491,346 Belgian inhabitants live in Flanders or the bilingual city of Brussels. Not including Brussels, there are five modern Flemish provinces. In medieval contexts, the original ""County of Flanders"" stretched around AD 900 from the Strait of Dover to the Scheldt estuary and expanded from there. This county also still corresponds roughly with the modern-day Belgian provinces of West Flanders and East Flanders, along with neighbouring parts of France and the Netherlands. Although this original meaning is still relevant, during the 19th and"
"largest cities: Paris, Lyon, and Marseille. It functions as an even lower administrative division, with its own mayor. Although usually referred to simply as an ""arrondissement,"" they should not be confused with departmental arrondissements, which are groupings of communes within one ""département"". The official translation into English is ""district"". Belgium is a federalized country which geographically consists of three regions, of which only Flanders (Flemish Region) and Wallonia (Walloon Region) are subdivided into five provinces each; the Brussels-Capital Region is neither a province nor is it part of one. In Belgium, there are administrative, judicial and electoral arrondissements. These may"
"Metro is the only rapid transit system in Belgium. In addition, both its airport and railway stations are the largest and busiest in the country. Historically Dutch-speaking, Brussels saw a language shift to French from the late 19th century. The Brussels-Capital Region is officially bilingual in Dutch and French, even though French is now the ""de facto"" main language with over 90% of the population speaking it. Brussels is also increasingly becoming multilingual. English is spoken as a second language by nearly a third of the population and a large number of migrants and expatriates speak other languages. Brussels is"
"of Belgium. It has a surface area of , or 55.18% of Belgium, and is also divided into 5 provinces which contain a total of 262 municipalities. Its capital is Namur. The official languages are French and, only in the nine eastern municipalities that form the German-speaking Community near the German border, German. Dutch however, may be used for administrative purposes in the four ""municipalities with language facilities"" at the border with Flanders, and German in two such municipalities near the German-speaking Community. The Walloon Region contains five provinces: Hainaut, Walloon Brabant, Namur, Liège and Luxembourg. Communities, regions and language"
"to its population register was 11,376,070. Almost all of the population is urban, at 97% in 2004. The population density of Belgium is 373 per square kilometre (966 per square mile) . The most densely inhabited area is Flanders. The Ardennes have the lowest density. , the Flemish Region had a population of 6,552,967, its most populous cities being Antwerp (523,248), Ghent (260,341) and Bruges (118,284). Wallonia had 3,624,377 with Charleroi (201,816), Liège (197,355) and Namur (110,939), its most populous cities. Brussels has 1,198,726 inhabitants in the Capital Region's 19 municipalities, three of which have over 100,000 residents. , nearly"
"Belgium's busiest highways, passes the city; the N16 dual carriageway leads to Mechelen and Brussels. Trains depart every half-hour to Ghent and Antwerp and hourly to Brussels, Mechelen and Leuven from the new railway station. The city also has an extensive network of buslines, both regional and local. Throughout the city's main thoroughfares, buses drive in designated lanes. Sint-Niklaas was awarded the title of Most Pedestrian Friendly City in Flanders after the restoration of its central Market area. Mayors since the end of World War II: Sint-Niklaas is twinned with: Sint-Niklaas Sint-Niklaas (, ) is a Belgian city and municipality"
"Antwerp, mainly because of its major port, versus on administration for Brussels, as Belgian capital and its function for the European Community. Though the centrally located city in both the Diamond and its major north-south industrial axis has two industrial zones within the municipal boundaries, Mechelen is also seen as a 'sleeping city' for its many commuters to those metropolises. Apart from Hasselt University in Limburg, all the Flemish universities are located at the provincial or national capitals at each corner of the Diamond, while Mechelen plays an important role because of its other types of higher education. Though a"
"south of the city. The city has several colleges, including Charlemagne University College (""Karel de Grote Hogeschool""), Plantin University College (""Plantijn Hogeschool""), and Artesis University College (""Artesis Hogeschool""). Artesis University College has about 8,600 students and 1,600 staff, and Charlemagne University College has about 10,000 students and 1,300 staff. Plantin University College has approximately 3,700 students. The following places are twinned with or sister cities to Antwerp: Antwerp Antwerp (, , ) is a city in Belgium, and is the capital of Antwerp province in Flanders. With a population of 520,504, it is the most populous city proper in Belgium."
"N2 road (Belgium) The N2 road in Belgium is a road connecting Brussels and Maastricht passing Leuven, Diest and Hasselt. It starts in Brussels at the Madou crossroad on the small ring, heading northeast as the Chaussée de Louvain/Leuvensesteenweg, which crosses the municipalities of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, City of Brussels, Schaerbeek, Evere and Woluwe-Saint-Lambert in Brussels, and then enter Flanders via the municipality of Zaventem, Flemish Brabant. When the road enters the municipality of Herent it is named Brusselsesteenweg up to Leuven. When it leaves Leuven, the road is named Diestsesteenweg as it leads to Diest. It is then named successively Staatsbaan,"
"emerged in Brussels, the capital and largest city of the country. Ethnic tensions have affected some of the city's surrounding municipalities, which are situated in Flanders, but have had a great influx of monolingual French-speakers as a result of suburbanisation. These Dutch-speaking ""facility municipalities"" are obliged to offer local government services in French, meaning health-care and public amenities are divided on linguistic lines, and in some municipalities the original French-speaking minority is believed to have become a majority. The main reason for Brussels being mainly French-speaking was the low social prestige of the Dutch language in Belgium during the 19th"
"Luxembourg (Belgium) Luxembourg (; ; ; ; ) is the southernmost province of Wallonia and of Belgium. It borders on (clockwise from the east) the country of Luxembourg, France, and the Belgian provinces of Namur and Liège. Its capital is Arlon (, ), in the south-east of the province. It has an area of , making it the largest Belgian province. At around 250,000 residents, it is also the least populated province, making it a relatively sparsely populated province in an otherwise very densely populated country. It is significantly larger (70%) and much less populous than the neighbouring Grand Duchy"
"respectively 65 and 64 hours a year in traffic jams. Like in most small European countries, more than 80% of the airways traffic is handled by a single airport, the Brussels Airport. The ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge (Bruges) share more than 80% of Belgian maritime traffic, Antwerp being the second European harbour with a gross weight of goods handled of 115 988 000 t in 2000 after a growth of 10.9% over the preceding five years. In 2016, the port of Antwerp handled 214 million tons after a year-on-year growth of 2.7%. There is a large economic gap between"
"Mons Mons (; ; ; ; ) is a Walloon city and municipality, and the capital of the Belgian province of Hainaut. The Mons municipality includes the former communes of Cuesmes, Flénu, Ghlin, Hyon, Nimy, Obourg, Jemappes, Ciply, Harmignies, Harveng, Havré, Maisières, Mesvin, Nouvelles, Saint-Denis, Saint-Symphorien, Spiennes and Villers-Saint-Ghislain. Together with the Czech city of Plzeň, Mons was the European Capital of Culture in 2015. The first signs of activity in the region of Mons are found at Spiennes, where some of the best flint tools in Europe were found dating from the Neolithic period. When Julius Caesar arrived in"
"million day tourists visit the city and in 2007 there were about 1.4 million overnight stays. The port of Ghent, in the north of the city, is the third largest port of Belgium. It is accessed by the Ghent–Terneuzen Canal, which ends near the Dutch port of Terneuzen on the Western Scheldt. The port houses, among others, big companies like ArcelorMittal, Volvo Cars, Volvo Trucks, Volvo Parts, Honda, and Stora Enso. The Ghent University, the second largest university of Belgium by number of students, and a number of research oriented companies are situated in the central and southern part of"
"places in Belgium. Hove, Belgium Hove () is a municipality (""gemeente"") located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality only comprises the town of Hove proper. On January 1, 2006, Hove had a total population of 8,307. The total area is 5.99 km² which gives a population density of 1,388 inhabitants per km². The municipality lies approximately from the city of Antwerp, the capital of the province. It is a small community, and is said to be one of the most expensive areas in Belgium. Many people pay large sums of money to live there because it is one"
"others, as well in the short term as in the long run, for particular projects. Here follow a few examples. Bruges Bruges (; ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country. The area of the whole city amounts to more than 13,840 hectares (138.4 sq km; 53.44 sq miles), including 1,075 hectares off the coast, at Zeebrugge (from ""Brugge aan zee"", meaning ""Bruges by the Sea""). The historic city centre is a prominent World Heritage Site of UNESCO. It is oval"
"most notably Royal Antwerp, which is the country's oldest club and which is affectionately referred to as the ""Great Old"" by its supporters and the media). Royal Antwerp currently plays in First Division B, as does provincial rival Lierse. Two clubs from this province currently play in the top flight, Mechelen and Westerlo. Two clubs from Limburg currently play in First Division A, Genk and Sint-Truiden; additionally, one club represents the province in First Division B, Lommel United. Technically-speaking, Brussels is not a province but rather an autonomous administrative (sub-)urban region within the province of Flemish Brabant. Only one currently"
"Trains from Brussels to the Netherlands had to either reverse at Central or call only at Berchem station, to the south, and then describe a semicircle to the east, round the Singel. Now, they call at the new lower level of the station before continuing in the same direction. Antwerp is also home to Antwerpen-Noord, the largest classification yard for freight in Belgium and second largest in Europe. The majority of freight trains in Belgium depart from or arrive here. It has two classification humps and over a hundred tracks. The city has a web of tram and bus lines"
"average, and the gap between rich and poor is wider. Brussels and its suburbs, taking into account its outer commuter zone (RER/GEN area), have a population of about 2.6 million and extend over a large part of the two Brabant provinces. Brussels is also part of a wider diamond-shaped conurbation, with Ghent, Antwerp and Leuven, which has about 4.4 million inhabitants (a little more than 40% of the total population of Belgium). Brussels is home to a large number of immigrants. At the last Belgian census in 1991, 63.7% of inhabitants in Brussels-Capital Region answered that they were Belgian citizens,"
"following cities: Brussels Brussels ( ; ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (, ), is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels, which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is located in the central portion of the country and is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the Flemish Region (in which it forms an enclave) and the Walloon Region. Brussels is the most densely populated and the richest region in Belgium in terms of GDP per capita. It covers , a relatively small"