With its three official languages for only 11 million inhabitants, where the Dutch language dominates over French, Belgium is world-famous for its complexity.
The situation is even more challenging in Switzerland, which has no less than 4 official languages for less than 9 million inhabitants. The German language is used by most of the population and French by a significant minority.
In such case, shouldn't Belgian associations not go and get their inspiration in Switzerland?
A full day long, Infosteel and Belmetal had an extensive exchange of views with the colleagues from SSHV (Schweizerischer Stahl- und Haustechnikhandelsverband - Association Suisse du Commerce de I'Acier et de la Technique du Bâtiment) and SZS (Stahlbau Zentrum Schweiz - Centre suisse de la construction métallique). How do they operate ? How do they deal with the use of two main languages ? How is SZS financed ?
An interesting and very instructive benchmark !
From left to right on the picture :
Christophe Lagrange - Belmetal, Belgium
Myriam Spinnler - SZS, Switzerland
Andreas Steffes - SSHV, Switzerland
Koen Michielsen - Infosteel, Belgium