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Belgium: new student-entrepreneur status will emerge in 2017

Xinhua, November 24, 2016 Adjust font size:

Belgium's Economic Committee of the Chamber adopted on Wednesday the decrees implementing student-entrepreneur status, which will enter into force on Jan. 1, 2017, Radio Television Belge Francophone (RTBF) reported.

According to Eurostat, the European statistical information body, the self-employment rate among young people under 25 in Belgium is lower than the European average. They are 5.9 percent in Belgium and 7.5 percent in Europe.

For Willy Borsus, Minister of the Independents and SMEs, the new status aims to promote entrepreneurship among young people: "The spirit to undertake cannot be decreed, it instills itself. For example, by creating favorable conditions and status.

"That's why it's important for me to put in place a real status for all the students who have the courage to take the step of entrepreneurial adventure," said Borsus.

This status will be opened to all the students enrolled in an educational institution that issues a degree recognized by the Belgian State and who wishes to embark on entrepreneurship.

This student-entrepreneur plan provides, among other things, for a system of advantageous social contributions and the taking into account of the periods for which the student pays contributions for the opening of his rights in the case of incapacity for work, disability or maternity. Endit