d metal products

Exports - partners: EU 76% (Germany 18%, France 18%, Netherlands
12%, UK 10%) (1999)

Imports: $166 billion (c.i.f., 2000)

Imports - commodities: machinery and equipment, chemicals, metals
and metal products

Imports - partners: EU 71% (Germany 18%, Netherlands 17%, France
14%, UK 9%) (1999)

Debt - external: $28.3 billion (1999 est.)

Economic aid - donor: ODA, $764 million (1997)

Currency: Belgian franc (BEF); euro (EUR)

note: on 1 January 1999, the EU introduced the euro as a common
currency that is now being used by financial institutions in Belgium
at a fixed rate of 40.3399 Belgian francs per euro and will replace
the local currency for all transactions in 2002

Currency code: BEF; EUR

Exchange rates: euros per US dollar - 1.0659 (January 2001), 1.0854
(2000), 0.9386 (1999); Belgian francs per US dollar - 34.77 (January
1999), 36.229 (1998), 35.774 (1997), 30.962 (1996)

Fiscal year: calendar year

Belgium Communications

Telephones - main lines in use: 4.769 million (1997)

Telephones - mobile cellular: 974,494 (1997)

Telephone system: general assessment: highly developed,
technologically advanced, and completely automated domestic and
international telephone and telegraph facilities

domestic: nationwide cellular telephone system; extensive cable
network; limited microwave radio relay network

international: 5 submarine cables; satellite earth stations - 2
Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) and 1 Eutelsat

Radio broadcast stations: FM 79, AM 7, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios: 8.075 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations: 25 (plus 10 repeaters) (1997)

Televisions: 4.72 million (1997)

Internet country code: .be

Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 61 (2000)

Internet users: 2.7 million (2000)

Belgium Transportation

Railways: total: 3,437 km (2,446 km electrified; 2,563 km double
track)

standard gauge: 3,437 km 1.435-m gauge (1998)

Highways: total: 145,774 km

paved: 116,182 km (including 1,674 km of expressways)

unpaved: 29,592 km (1999)

Waterways: 2,043 km (1,528 km in regular commercial use)

Pipelines: crude oil 161 km; petroleum products 1,167 km; natural
gas 3,300 km

Ports and harbors: Antwerp (one of the world's busiest ports),
Brugge, Gent, Hasselt, Liege, Mons, Namur, Oostende, Zeebrugge

Merchant marine: total: 21 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling
32,912 GRT/53,161 DWT

ships by type: cargo 6, chemical tank