Invest in Wallonia international
Stretching over 16,844 square kilometres, Wallonia occupies the southern part of the country, and accounts for more than half of the Belgian territory. Wallonia extends over 5 provinces: Brabant Wallon, Hainaut, Liège, Luxembourg and Namur. The main cities are Liège, Charleroi, Mons, Namur, Tournai, Verviers, Nivelles and Mouscron. 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.
Industrial potential focused on the future
Over the years, Wallonia's industries were led by inventive industrial geniuses who have left their name 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. Wallonia now plays a leading role in the major cutting-edge technology sectors. 65,000 innovative, flexible and creative SMEs all contribute to this ongoing challenge.
Modern and efficient traditional sectors
The economic centres of gravity of Wallonia, Liège, Charleroi and Wavre all testify to this longstanding industrial heritage. Steelworks, structural steelworks, cutting-edge electro mechanics, chemicals and glassware are the foundation stones of Wallonia’s prosperity. Equipped with modern, high-performance tools, these sectors have greatly diversified their product range, and a number of these sectors are now global leaders in their category.
University-business links
The wealth of expertise available within Wallonia's universities offers companies located within the region exceptional potential in terms of high-quality research and development. Liège and Namur are particularly specialised in telecoms, IT and software development, as well as in new composite materials and aeronautics. The Liège Space Centre, which started out on the Sart-Tilman university campus (Liège university) is actively involved in the European space project Ariane, and is a partner of NASA.
Centres of excellence right across Wallonia
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Namur and its expertise in the IT and telecom sector
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Gembloux and its agronomic and cutting-edge agribusiness technologies
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Liège and its space centre
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Charleroi, specialising in aeronautics, graphic arts and life sciences
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Mons, leading the field of information technologies and new materials
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Seneffe and the Feluy triangle for its expertise in petrochemistry
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Louvain-La-Neuve and its advances in the biomedical and pharmaceutical sectors
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Arlon and Bastogne, environmental areas of excellence.