$3.6 billion in US investment

The United States has at least $3.6 billion invested in Belgium. And Belgium would like more US money to help relieve unemployment and further modernize the economy.

"Belgium is always open to foreign investment," noted Roland Charlier, a top official in the Ministry of Economic Affairs. "We have practically 10,000 foreign industrial, commercial, and service enterprises."

Some 65 percent of that investment is American, attracted here by Belgium's central position in wEstern Europe, its excellent transportation and communication facilities, its skilled and productive workers, its freedom to repatriate capital and profits, its willingness to grant work permits to foreigners, its adequate housing and office facilities, and what Mr. Charlier calls its "good climate" for investment.