Number of foreign investments in Flanders reaches new high

Minister-President of Flanders Geert Bourgeois has some good economic news to start this new year. Flanders has never seen as many foreign investment projects as it did in 2015: a total of 227. That is an increase of 23.4%, or almost a quarter more than in 2014.

Those projects represent a total amount of EUR 2.7 billion and employment amounting to 4,352 jobs: this is also almost a quarter above the figures for 2014. The largest part of that employment is situated in logistics and production activities (both 36%). “An important observation is also that 22% of those investments are taking place in research and development, which are of course the future of our industry,” Geert Bourgeois notes.

Internationalisation strategy
The Minister-President still hopes to improve on those figures. At the World Economic Forum in the Swiss city of Davos he wishes to convince a number of global business leaders of the economic trump cards Flanders holds. “I will introduce the internationalisation strategy for our economy there, at the Flanders International Economic Summit, developed together with our partners at Flanders Investment & Trade. This strategy is a top priority for the Flemish Government. Internationalisation is, after all, the economic lifeline of Flanders, not only for our companies that engage in international business, but also for our Flemish economy which is in need of foreign investors,” Geert Bourgeois concludes.