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Regions are increasingly becoming a main engine of globalization and are playing a more and more important role in economic development policies. As a consequence, regional authorities must be very attentive to the competitiveness of their region. In a first part of the paper, some main economic European indicators are analyzed for the traditional industrial regions and metropolitan areas in order to put forward the real position of the Walloon as well as Brussels-Capital regions. As other European regions, Walloon and Brussels policy-makers have implemented a new industrial policy based on the promotion and the support of competitiveness clusters. The main characteristics of this policy and of its implementation as well as its forces and weaknesses are reviewed in the second part of the paper. JEL Codes – R58, R38, R11.