Limburg is the most southern province of the Netherlands, with about 1.1 million inhabitants living in a region bordering the German Land North Rhine-Westphalia to the east and the Belgian provinces of Liège and Limburg (BE) to the west and south. Since the late 1970s, Limburg, in particular the southern part, has seen a strong economic revival after being a peripheral mining region which had to face the prospect of mass unemployment from the late 1960s onwards.

Benefiting from its central location in one of the EU most densely populated economic areas, unemployment has been falling steadily and, with a few local exceptions, the region has taken a modern and international outlook. Today, the industrial tissue is dominated by a diverse number of industrial clusters: the chemical industry is located in the southern part of the region, centred around DSM (Dutch State Mines) and showing dynamism in the area of speciality and farmaceutical chemicals. Furthermore, activities focus on the automobile industry, with a manufacturing site (Nedcar) at the centre of a fabric of specialised suppliers like Inalfa industries. These companies find the region to be an attractive distance from the biggest automotive production centres in the EU.

Another speciality is the manufacturing of building materials. In the northern part of the province, the high-tech industry is developing, with one company (Oce), employing 1,100 personnel in R&D alone. Beyond the industrial clusters, other dynamic speciality areas are intensive horticulture and agricultural equipment manufacturing, as well as seeds and seed material.

Although to a limited degree at regional level (University of Maastricht, elected by students as well as professors as the best University in the Netherlands), Limburg is within easy access of a very complete public and international technical research infrastructure, such as one of largest technical universities in the EU, the Rheinisch-Westfaelische Technische Hochschule Aachen (Germany) and higher education and R&D institutions in Liège and Hasselt (Belgium). Limburg has an extensive infrastructure of intermediary organisations supporting knowledge transfer to small and medium-sized enterprises.

More information: The Netherlands

Regional profile