Wallonia

Stretching over 16,844 square kilometres, Wallonia is the southern part of Belgium, and accounts for more than half of the Belgian territory. It has a relatively dense population (203.98 inhabitants per square kilometre) of 3,435,879 inhabitants, which accounts for one third of the total Belgian population.

Wallonia is a federated entity with its own competencies (a.o. economic policy and employment, applied scientific research and the capability to conclude international treaties with other regions of the world) and its own Government settled in Namur, its capital city.

For many years, heavy industry was the driving force behind the region's economy. Indeed, Wallonia was the birthplace of the industrial revolution on continental Europe. Clearly pursuing the same path today, Wallonia now plays a leading role in major cutting-edge technology sectors. 65,000 innovative, flexible and creative SMEs all contribute to this ongoing challenge.

An ideal location at the heart of Europe

Wallonia is a land of exchanges: not only economic, but also cultural and human, and has been able to take advantage of its ideal geographical situation at the heart of Europe. With immediate vicinity of Brussels, and major cities within a few hours, Wallonia is directly connected to all decision making centres in Europe. Wallonia's motorway network is the densest and probably one of the best-equipped in the world. Wallonia bears also efficient pipeline distribution network for basic raw materials (olefin, hydrogen, nitrogen) and energy fluids (natural gas).

Highest concentration of brainpower in Europe

Wallonia counts no less than 9 university centres, 13 higher education colleges, 30 research centres, 6 university science parks dedicated to cutting edge technologies, numerous approved shared research centres and a wide "centres of excellence" network.

The region has a worldwide reputation for its capacity to innovate and for the quality of its research, often rewarded by scientific Nobel Prizes (Jules Bordet, Albert Claude and Christian de Duve). The percentage of highly qualified human resources in Wallonia rates amongst the highest in the world. A quarter of the working population in Belgium has a college degree. This highly qualified workforce provides the region with a vast source of innovation potential and allows Wallonia to play a leading role in the high-tech and frontier technology sectors.

Thanks to the strong ties that exist between universities and business, Wallonia has witnessed the development of globally recognised centres of excellence in the most innovative sectors. Among others, the Centre of Technological Resources in Chemistry (CERTECH), which conducts applied research in the fields of polymers, surface analysis, material emissions and air quality.

Over the years, Wallonia's industries were led by inventive industrial geniuses who have left their names to major industrial concerns such as Cockerill and de Geer (steelworks), Solvay (chemistry), Gramme (electricity), Jadot, Empain, and Nagelmackers (rail networks). The region's knowledge and expertise has always found its way to the four corners of the industrial world.

Chemicals: Industrial potential focused on the future

The chemical industry in Wallonia includes 200 companies, 60,000 jobs of which 25,000 direct jobs and a turnover of 10.9 billion EUR. This traditional sector is the second largest industrial employer and an important driver of economic growth in the region.

Until the early 1970's, the chemical industry in the Walloon region was centred on fertilisers and heavy inorganic chemistry. After the two petrol crises that marked the end of the 20th century, the Walloon chemical industry reacted by diversifying production.

Basic chemical manufacturing activities are mainly concentrated in the province of Hainaut (the Feluy-Manage-Seneffe triangle and Tertre). In addition, Wallonia has an important biotechnological pole (BioWin) and high-tech pharmaceutical industry in the Walloon Brabant and North Hainaut areas. These two areas account for 70% of the activities in this sector. Another subregion - Liege - hosts large companies such as Prayon group (phosphate chemicals) or NMC group (leading international company in the synthetic foam market).

Thus major activities include pharmaceutical chemistry, synthetic chemistry, transformation of plastics and rubber, enzyme chemistry, agribusiness chemistry, biotechnology chemistry, petrochimy chemistry, parachemistry.

The region also facilitates the development of young companies in the chemical sector, by creating incubators or shared infrastructures to limit young companies’ initial investments.

The region has recently welcomed the Plastiwin cluster creation. This cluster aims at gathering stakeholders involved in the plastic value chain ( raw materials, casting, engineering, tools manufacturing, R&D, primary and secondary processing) (see: http://clusters.wallonie.be/federateur/en.

The competitiveness poles

Five Competitiveness poles concentrate the public and private resources of Wallonia (in research, investments, training, access to capital, etc.) on booming and cutting edge sectors that have already demonstrated potential. The aim of this policy is to build up a critical mass and a level of excellence in specific sectors such as biotechnologies.

These five poles are: BioWin (Health), Wagralim (Agro-industry), Mecatech (Mechanical engineering), Logistics in Wallonia (Transport & logistic) and Skywin (Aeronautics & space industry) (see: http://www.polesdecompetitivite.eu/home/en_poles/index.html). BioWin is the acronym of BIOtechnologies Wallonia Innovation. BioWin’s members are active in the main health biotechnology sectors, namely: pharmacy and biopharmacy, diagnoses, medical devices and equipment.

Large companies that are BioWin members are world leaders such as GSK Biologicals (vaccines), UCB (biopharmacy) and IBA (cyclotrons, proton therapy) that have developed in the region from their roots in the local scientific and industrial fabric. Around 30% of the workforce of these companies is still dedicated to R&D. Baxter (biopharmacy, medical devices) has been active for more than 30 years in Wallonia (R&D and production) and continues to be a long-term investor in the region. Alongside these major industrial operators is a dense network of SMEs including numerous university spin-offs.