LUXEMBOURG - Geography and history
Situated in the southernmost part of the country, Luxembourg is both the largest (4 440 km²) and least densely populated of Belgium's provinces.
It is also the province with the highest average altitude (400 m), rising to 650 m at Barraque de Fraiture, and has an accentuated relief. The climate is of the semi-continental rainy type, and thus quite harsh, particularly in the Ardennes hills. However, there are microclimates in sheltered valleys and on the southern slopes of the Ardennes in the Gaume district, and these places hold the national records for maximum temperatures and sunshine hours.
The hydrographie network is extensive and the water of good quality, the region being drained by two tributaries of the Meuse, the Ourthe in the north and the Semois in the south.
Luxembourg owes its distinction as the greenest province in the kingdom to its high proportion of woodland: 207 000 hectares of forest, 55% of which are deciduous (mainly beech) and 45% coniferous (spruce), cover almost half of the area of the province. But it also owes this distinction to its countryside, which is very much coloured by rural activities.The region has 6% of its employment in the primary sector.
In 2002, the province of Luxembourg had a total population of 250 406. The population is evenly distributed between the 5 districts of Arlon (52 749), Bastogne (41 505), Marche en Famenne (51 101), Neufchateau (56 039), and Virton (49 012).
Insufficiently integrated production infrastructure
The province had a history of rural depopulation and major delays in development. However, since 1972, negative net migration has stopped and the rates for population growth, job creation, investment and GDP growth have been above the Belgian average.
The province has achieved this by exploiting its central position in the north-south axis of the European Community, a position which has been enhanced by the motorway infrastructure (E25/E411 motorways linking Liege-Brussels-Luxembourg). Furthermore, the province's countryside and forests give its produce and its quality of life, a stamp of quality. Finally, a young (one third of the population is less than 25) and dynamic population and a network of training establishments mean that highly skilled manpower is readily available.
However, this economic development is still somewhat precarious, mainly because of the uncertainties that hang over the future of the province's agricultural sector, which is not very diversified and is geared almost exclusively to mixed cattle rearing (meat and dairy).
Furthermore, production is split between a wealth of tiny craft businesses (22% of wage and salary earners work for businesses employing fewer than five people) in traditional sectors (timber, food, construction), which are subject to stiff competition, and a modern sector consisting of medium-sized businesses which have been set up using outside investment and which have relatively little to do with local industry.
Two very different subregions
Southern Luxembourg (the Arlon and Virton districts), is the most densely populated and traditionally the most industrialized region: the dismantling of the all-dominating steel industry astride the French and Luxembourg border in the late 1970s, brought about diversification at both sectoral level (chemistry/ plastics, materials, paper, vehicle accessories, confectionery) and geographic level. The south of the region is home to the largest companies in the province, drawn here because of the greater availability of manpower, and the urban and industrial centres of the Grand Duchy and French Lorraine.
The central and northern parts of the province (Bastogne, Marche-en-Famenne and Neufchâteau districts are the most rural areas of Luxembourg. Industrial development is centred on SMEs in the timber and agri-food sectors and on tourism, especially the major tourist centres of La Roche-en-Ardennes, Durbuy (Ourthe valley) and Bouillon (Semois valley).
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