wab magazine
winter 2018/2019
wallonia and brussels
Discover a region that combines technical knowhow with quality of life
FIT FOR A KING MEET THE ANIMATORS BEHIND THIS SURPRISE HIT FILM Discover why Wallonia is fast becoming China’s gateway to Europe Spacebel celebrates 30 pioneering years
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Editorial China’s commitment to Wallonia is growing. The choice of Liège as the first European logistical hub for e-commerce giant Alibaba is a significant step for the region. It fits into a concerted strategy to increase exports and boost jobs, with Liège Airport becoming a future ‘Gateway to China’. Read all about Wallonia’s long-term plan and the potential impact on the region in our focus on Chinese investment. Setting its sights even further is Spacebel, a local specialist in satellite software engineering. The Liège company is celebrating its 30th anniversary by continually adapting to the latest space technology to stay ahead of the competition. The creative sector is similarly pushing boundaries. With its first major animation, Mad Cat Studio is showcasing the country’s quirky history while providing an alternative model for producing and financing artistic projects. They all prove that vision and flexibility are key for the future of the region.
Don’t forget to download the WAB magazine app, now available for Android and iOS. Go to Google Play or iTunes and keep up-to-date with news and events in Wallonia and Brussels.
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Wallonia and Brussels - Contact AWEX Wallonia Export-Investment Agency www.awex.be WBI Wallonie-Bruxelles International www.wbi.be Welcome Offices www.investinwallonia.be
Wallonia.be EXPORT INVESTMENT
Editor Sarah Crew Deputy editor Sally Tipper Reporters Lisa Bradshaw, Leo Cendrowicz, Andy Furniere, Betina Kiefer, Paul McNally, Saffina Rana Art director Tine Van Beurden Managing director Hans De Loore AWEX/WBI and Ackroyd Publications Pascale Delcomminette – AWEX/WBI Marie-Catherine Duchêne AWEX, Place Sainctelette 2, 1080 Brussels, Belgium Tel: 00.32(0)2.421.85.76, Fax: 00.32(0)2.421.83.93 Email: mc.duchene@awex.be
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News and business updates from around the region
6 Profile: Fabien Pinckaers on the
business lessons he’s learned
8 Alphabiotoxine is harnessing
venom for use in the pharma and beauty industries
10 Hot chips: Why the world is
getting a taste for Lutosa’s potato products
© Lutosa SA
12 First-class travel for flying horses at Liège Airport
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13 Spacebel has been playing a
major role in the space race for 30 years
15 Meet the Brussels expat: Ilaria Maselli from Italy on harmonising work and life
16 China and Wallonia are
reaping the rewards of a fruitful partnership
21 Why organic food is going from strength to strength
© WBT/JP Rémy
23 Tourism takes to Wallonia’s waterways in 2019
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24 Artist collective Mad Cat
Studio introduce their royal animation film
27 Benoît Debie has turned
heads with his award-winning music video
28 Panorama: Col&MacArthur’s
timeless timepieces are a present fit for royalty
30 Our pick of cultural events in
© Hubert Amiel
Wallonia and Brussels
Cover: Leopold, King of the Belgians, animation by Mad Cat Studio
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TOP PRIZES FOR WALLOON ASTRONOMERS University of Liège astrophysicist Michaël Gillon has been awarded the Nasa Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for his work with the Spitzer space telescope that helped discover the TRAPPIST-1 star system. The annual prize highlighted Gillon’s creativity and exceptional innovation in finding the seven planets orbiting the TRAPPIST system, which may harbour life. Astronomer Olivier Absil from Pepinster in Liège province has been awarded €2.2 million by the European Research Council to finance his study of habitable planets for a further period of five years.
NEW MICHELIN STARS ANNOUNCED Maxime Collard of La Table de Maxime in Paliseul in Luxembourg province was one of the surprise winners in the 2019 Michelin Belux edition. The Ardennes chef was awarded a second star, as was David Martin of La Paix in Brussels. The capital now has a total of six two-star establishments, although there were no new entries to the gastronomic bible this year. In Wallonia, three new addresses have been recognised for their gourmet credentials: Plage d’Amée in Jambes (Namur province), and La Ligne rouge in Plancenoit and Little Paris in Waterloo (Walloon Brabant).
Royal performance: Queen Mathilde takes a tour of the Royal Conservatory of Liège. Her visit included a visit to the library instrument repository, before she attended a series of concerts performed and written by students. She also took in a performance of the Barber of Seville by the conservatory’s symphony orchestra in the Philharmonic Hall.
RECRUITMENT DRIVE FOR FAST-GROWING ONLINE PHARMACY Online pharmacy Newpharma is planning a major recruitment and expansion drive, more than doubling the workforce at its base near Liège by 2020. The e-commerce site, which sells over-the-counter medicines, toiletries, beauty and baby products, has reported annual growth of between 40 and 50% for the past three years and now turns over €80 million a year. The company employs 200 staff at its headquarters in Wandre, on the outskirts of Liège, and plans to hire up to 300 more in the coming years. The new jobs will mainly be in logistics and customer service. The firm also plans to build a new 20,000m² warehouse. The news comes after Newpharma was named scale-up of the year at Wallonia’s Company of the Year awards. The prize is awarded to firms in the region with high growth potential. “Newpharma has performed well and is ideally positioned to continue its expansion,” the judges said. Newpharma was Belgium’s first online pharmacy and has 1.6 million customers in a dozen countries. The site sells about 35,000 products online from 1,500 brands.
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FIRST BATCH OF ROOFTOP-GROWN ORGANIC FISH SOLD AT MARKET Brussels’ first 100% local organic fish has gone on sale, as part of an experiment into the circular economy that combines raising fish with growing vegetables. The fish have been growing at a new 4,000m² urban aquaponics farm on the roof of Anderlecht’s food market since last spring. Waste water from the fish is used to feed tomatoes and herbs, and the plants are used to filter the water. The first Brussels striped bass went on sale before Christmas and is sold at the market at €25 per kilo, with zero food miles. The farm aims to sell 30 tonnes of striped bass per year, 16 tonnes of cherry tomatoes, 170,000 pots of aromatic herbs and other seasonal fruit and veg. The project’s creator, BIGH (Building Integrated GreenHouses), hopes to use the expertise gained from the Anderlecht experiment to help people create urban farms elsewhere in Europe.
LOCAL FOOD PRODUCERS SCOOP AWARDS The eight winners of the 2018 edition of the competition Coq de Cristal have been unveiled by the Walloon Agency for the Promotion of Quality in Agriculture (Apaq-W) in Libramont. The awards recognise and promote local know-how and small businesses employing up to five people that produce artisanal fine food while respecting the environment. In total, 43 companies presented 50 products. A jury of food professionals and media critics then carried out a blind tasting to rate the products based on taste, texture and consistency, smell and appearance. The winners were: Saint-Rémi 2016 red wine by Ferme du Chapitre (Baulers, Walloon Brabant); open-ground carrots by Ferme Legat (Estinnes-auVal, Hainaut); Tomme de l'Épinette semi-hard cow’s milk cheese by Ferme l'Épinette (Baugnies, Hainaut); Cajeta de l’Enclus natural sweet condensed milk by Fromagerie de l’Enclus (Amougies, Hainaut); Biohérin leg of lamb (Lesterny, Luxembourg province); full-fat, unsweetened natural sheep’s milk yoghurt by Bergerie d’Acremont (Acremont, Luxembourg province); white blood sausage by Maison Duterme (Leignon, Namur); and sirloin steak by Boucherie de la Ferme Martin (Naomé, Namur).
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BUSINESS BRIEFS Air Algerie has begun twice-weekly flights from Charleroi to Algiers. The national airline flies to the Algerian capital on Tuesdays and Sundays. The arrival of Air Algerie brings to eight the number of airlines present at Charleroi. Low-cost rival TUI Fly also flies to Algiers from Charleroi. The Charleroi site of French rail mul-tinational Alstom will benefit from a €360m contract to supply 34 Coradia regional trains to the national railway company of Luxembourg, CFL. Spe-cialising in signal systems and trac-tion, the Charleroi base will also be responsible for developing the trains’ auxiliary convertors. The high-capac-ity trains are due to be delivered from December 2021 and will be in service in Belgium and France as well as Lux-embourg. Revenues at Pairi Daiza rose 12% in 2018 to reach €64 million. About two million people visited the animal park near Mons this season. Profits reached €9 million, the latest accounts show. A new eco-friendly business park will open in Wavre in 2019, with flexible units for 19 small and medium-sized businesses. The project, named Franklin, will occupy a 68acre site in the town’s north industrial estate and is expected to directly create 60 jobs. The units will be fully equipped and ready to move in. Wallonia’s SHAKE digital event held in Namur in December awarded export cheques of €10,000 to the following start-ups: ALX Systems (drone smart solutions), DigiTeal (European digital invoice platform), CyanView (minicamera system), Tessares (internet connection optimisation), Herrmutt Lobby (iPad Playground app).
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IN THE SPOTLIGHT Fabien Pinckaers
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Š Virginie Lefour/Belga
Dubbed the Bill Gates of Belgium, Limalborn Pinckaers created and sold his first management software aged just 13. His company Odoo now employs 580 people
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Success is all about execution and moving forward every week
What else interests you? Keeping the great company culture while we grow and focusing on having happy customers and employees. These things didn’t interest me in the early years but now they have become my secondary focus. How do you keep fuelling your motivation? I always have been motivated by building a product that can have an impact for its users. That hasn’t changed. The difference now is that I am more focused than when I was young. I developed a lot of different products then. Now, the target is more narrow – to help SMEs grow by making them more efficient. Is your goal for Odoo still to be the world’s most widely used management software? Yes. We’ve built an amazing product and service, used by 4 million users worldwide. However, I still think we are only at the beginning and there are a lot of things to do. Most companies are still largely inefficient in the way they operate. We have done a lot to improve their situation, but there are so many more areas to improve.
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What’s the best advice you ever took? Just do it. Success is all about execution and moving forward every week. How do you like to spend non-work time? I think about work, even during nonworking time. Mostly because I don’t feel like it’s work. Building something to help millions of employees to work better is way more interesting than most entertainment activity.
What’s the most memorable quote you keep in mind? I remember an Oracle vice president of sales at a conference in Paris around 2003. When he got a question about MySQL and other open source databases, his answer was dismissive: “Open source? You are talking about this 0 billion dollar market?” He was right at the time: the market of open source databases was only worth around €100 million. But in the years that followed, MySQL and PostgreSQL ‘stole’ millions of Oracle users. Then in 2009, Oracle purchased Sun, the owner of MySQL, for $7.4 billion. It reminds me that, while we grow, we should never underestimate the smaller players. Actually, the young start-ups usually execute more quickly, with more interesting and innovative ideas than established players. Today, I still spend a lot of my time testing software from the competition in order to learn from their key features. What’s the most important lesson you’ve learnt? We can do everything, but it takes time. odoo.com
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Toxic shock A small lab in Wallonia is providing healing animal venom to companies around the world By Andy Furniere
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ompanies and researchers all over the world are increasingly interested in using toxins from animal venom to produce medicine. A small lab with unique expertise, tucked away in the village of Montroeul-au-Bois, Hainaut, provides them with venom from the most diverse animal species. It sounds paradoxical: using often deadly venom to create products to improve people’s health. But researchers found that the
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toxins in venom affect the health of prey via similar mechanisms to those that need to be adjusted in people to cure them from diseases. The essential components are specific molecules called peptides Pharmaceutical companies have already used toxins to develop painkillers and medicine to treat conditions such as cancer, diabetes, obesity and heart failure. Diagnostic tools based on this material, for example to detect brain tumours, are in the
pipeline. The cosmetic sector also uses it, to create new kinds of anti-ageing cream. To obtain the necessary toxins, many companies and researchers are coming to Wallonia’s Alphabiotoxine Laboratory, founded by Rudy Fourmy about 10 years ago. Fourmy’s career path is remarkable: he gained a biotechnology egree and started his career at the French lab Latoxan – also producing venoms – but he then worked for more than 20 years as a driving instructor before establishing Alpha-
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biotoxine in 2009. Two years ago he put the company in the hands of a new director but is still involved closely in its working. The Walloon company is part of an exclusive club. “There are only two other professional venom-producing labs in Europe and maybe fifteen globally,” says Fourmy. “We also stand out with the diversity of our toxins.” While most of its competitors focus on snakes and scorpions, which are the easiest to handle for this purpose, Alphabiotoxine houses a large variety of species in its facilities: many varieties of spiders, bees, centipedes, sea anemones, sea urchins, sea slugs and more. In total, the company has a catalogue of about 300 toxins. Alphabiotoxine exports mainly to European countries but has clients all over the world, including in the US and Asia. Extracting venom from snakes is relatively simple if you know how – and are not afraid – to treat them: pressing their venom glands causes the poisonous substance to run out. Scorpions are a bit more complicated, requiring electrical stimulation. But how do you manage it with complicated creatures such as miniature spiders or sea urchins? “That’s a
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business secret, of course,” says Fourmy. “That’s one way in which we make the difference.”
Fourmy. “While the interest in our domain has grown, there is still a lack of experience.”
The venomous animals are not like cows that can be milked every day. Snake venom can be tapped frequently, but some species can only provide it a few times a year. That’s an important factor in the high cost of certain venoms, with prices higher than €100,000 a gram. “But it’s generally bought in milligrams, so we don’t get rich doing this work,” says Fourmy. The company employs only one person full-time – director Aude Violette – and otherwise works with external technicians.
An important project that stimulated this sector was the EU's Venomics project, which ran from 2011 to 2015. Alphabiotoxine provided the venom, which was used by knowledge centres and companies to set up a database of about 25,000 molecules extracted from 200 species. “Tests with these molecules are now under way,” says Fourmy. “I expect several new medicines based on these toxins in a decade.” This research is not only for the benefit of people, but also for that of certain animals. “Many venomous species are endangered,” says Fourmy. “The interest in them for healthcare purposes can indirectly help to safeguard them.”
Alphabiotoxine also sells its expertise. “We increasingly provide consultancy services as well, assisting companies and researchers to use the toxins in the correct manner,” says
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Frying high Potato specialist Lutosa is bringing local flavours to the world By Betina Kiefer
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ew products are more widely recognised as Belgian than fries. Accordingly, potato processing company Lutosa takes great pride in its own national identity, aiming to export not just its product but also its local identity, know-how and flavours worldwide. Its main product is frozen fries, which are offered in many varieties and can be produced to detailed specifications, thanks to its multi-functional production lines. Lutosa also produces speciality potato products, including röstis, mash, wedges, croquettes and flakes. When it comes to its roots, Lutosa makes sure it gives potential customers, importers and distributors the whole picture. “There’s a kind of storytelling where we
guide our customers, so when they visit Lutosa in Leuze, they see one of the biggest fully integrated potato processing facilities in the world,” says marketing director Françoise Saint-Ghislain. “But they also learn everything about potatoes and the feeling of Belgium: a small country full of surprises, humble and enthusiastic people, and gastronomy.” The company was founded in 1978 in Leuzeen-Hainaut by the descendants of a family of potato traders, with Lutosa taking the village’s original Latin name. “They were traders, buying potatoes from the farmers and exporting them. So when the frozen business was starting they decided to switch from potato trade to potato processing,” says Saint-Ghislain.
© Lutosa SA
Despite its firm local roots, Lutosa now has sales offices in 25 countries over five continents, with its products exported to 138 countries. As part of the Canadian McCain group, Lutosa’s unique B2B business model entails working with partners around the world and helping them develop their own businesses with the Lutosa brand. These partners either operate in other industries, such as meat or poultry farming, or are importers and sellers. “Our business model is really to grow with our local partners, to help them in their own business and develop the Lutosa brand name worldwide,” says Saint-Ghislain. Wallonia is an attractive location for Lutosa not just because of Belgium’s frites, but also thanks to its highly productive agricultural environment. Its potato fields yield about
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48-50 tonnes per hectare. There are two production sites in Belgium, in two of its most fertile regions. The company’s main facility remains in Leuze-en-Hainaut, with a second production site in Flanders. Lutosa's production facilities are uniquely integrated, keeping several stages of potato storage and processing under the same roof. These include storage of raw materials and end products in a highly controlled environment, unloading, washing and sorting potatoes, quality control of raw potatoes and end products, and the production lines of its many speciality products. Thanks to Lutosa’s sustainability initiatives, these integrated processes not only make production more efficient, they also help ensure that almost nothing goes to waste. “We can really optimise our raw material,” says Saint-Ghislain. This entails recycling waste water and producing green energy from the methane gas generated by an anaerobic plant. It also includes reusing residual potato bits, starch and peels, which are collected to make flakes, as input for the paper industry and as cattle feed. Thanks to its business model, its expertise and the support of Wallonia’s international trade offices, the company’s worldwide presence is rapidly expanding, having tripled the number of countries in which it is present in the past 18 years. With the help of Lutosa, Belgium’s unique flavours may yet take over the world. lutosa.com
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© Lutosa SA
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Our business model is really to grow with our local partners
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© FEI/Dirk Caremans
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Room at the inn Liège Airport specialises in equine air travel By Sarah Crew
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ore than 3,000 high-bred horses transit through Liège Airport by road or by air each year. Since 2016, the airport’s purpose-built facility has been providing overnight accommodation for this special group of travellers and has gained a reputation worldwide for caring for equines on the move. The all-in equestrian hotel offers administrative formalities, reception and vet-
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erinary care as well as 55 spacious, fully equipped horse boxes. The horses’ accompanying grooms are also well catered for. While the €1,250,000 horse hotel was built for four-legged travellers waiting to board a flight, it also serves animals travelling by road. Airlines providing specialised transport include El Al Cargo, Emirates, Icelandair, Qatar Airways and TNT Airways. In 2016, the airport transported more than
250 horses for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. With a focus on international air freight, Liège is responsible for 66% of all European freight within the golden triangle of Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt and has developed cutting-edge cargo infrastructure. liegeairport.com horseinn@lachs.be
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Space odyssey Liège’s Spacebel is celebrating 30 years of state-of-the-art software engineering By Leo Cendrowicz
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Spacebel provides software for satellites and space vehicles, among other on-board software that pilots the spacecraft or payload. It was formed in 1988 by a group of Belgian shareholders and the French Matra Marconi Space – now Airbus Group – which was looking for industrial partners in European Space Agency (ESA) countries such as Belgium and Spain. Today, the shareholding is entirely Belgian, combining public authorities and private investors.
The company employs some 100 people at several locations: one third in Liège, a third in Hoeilaart, near Brussels, and the remainder in Toulouse and in its newest office in Warsaw. With a turnover of approximately €12 million in 2017, Spacebel is a key player in the European space industry. Much of its work is in Earth monitoring services: the company offers space applications to support natural resources and hazards management, spatial planning, atmosphere, © ESA/P Carril
f the Space Age began when the Sputnik satellite was launched in 1957, then Liege-based software engineering company Spacebel has been around for just half that time. But as the company celebrates its 30th anniversary, it can claim its own role in the story of mankind’s adventures in space, thanks to its state-ofthe-art IT systems that have contributed to the development of an array of satellites orbiting Earth.
• Proba-V satellite
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We want to use all available resources to satisfy our customers’ needs agriculture, water resources, forests and land carbon management. Managing director Thierry du Pré-Werson, who joined the group a year after it was set up, says the original plan was to found a pioneering software company. “We have always wanted to develop expertise in satellite and launch control,” he says.
nication networks, navigation, exploration, launchers, balloons and space situational awareness. About 95% of turnover is generated from export: space agencies, prime aerospace companies, Earth observation data users and the downstream sector from the space market are among its main customers.
Spacebel’s software also found its way into Pléiades, the twin French high-resolution Earth-imaging satellites that were launched in 2011 and 2012. And this year, the company upgraded its production facilities, opening 500m² ISO 5 & ISO 7 clean rooms in compliance with space sector standards.
Spacebel’s original clients were space agencies, working on projects such as the Columbus laboratory that is part of the International Space Station (ISS), and CNES’s Hermes spaceplane. It specialises in on-board control and data handling software, simulation, control and mission centres.
It helped design satellite control and mission centres for the Artemis telecommunications satellites, and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory for the study of the Sun and comets. In 1993, Spacebel delivered control software to the European Southern Observatory for the Very Large Telescope in Chile. It was closely involved in the ESA’s Proba-1 (PRoject for On Board Autonomy) mini satellite, which was launched in 2001 and is still in operation, making it the ESA’s longest orbiting Earth observation mission.
The market has changed dramatically since 1988, and in recent years there has been a wave of new commercial launchers such as Elon’s Musk’s Space X and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin. Du Pré-Werson recognises the shift and insists that Spacebel can adapt to the changing industry. “We don’t want to reinvent everything, but we want to use all available resources to satisfy our customers’ needs and expectations in line with the latest trends,” he says. spacebel.be
© Spacebel
© ESA
To date, the company has been involved in more than 40 space missions, with its software used in Earth observation, telecommunications applications, satellite commu-
• Rice paddies in Senegal
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• VEGALauncher ESA
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MEET THE BRUSSELS EXPAT
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come from Bari, a city on the Adriatic Sea in the south of Italy, and I arrived in Brussels in 2006 as an Erasmus student. I was doing my master’s in European affairs and my not-so-secret plan was to find a way to stay in the European capital.
I have here, I would never have had where I come from. And I love the energy of Brussels, too: it’s not like Paris or Berlin, where you will always be a guest. Brussels is different, it belongs to everyone who wants to build something here.
I now work as a senior economist for a think tank and membership organisation. I monitor the business cycle of the European economy and lead research in Europe on labour markets and trade patterns.
I spend my free time on politics. With a bunch of other Europeans and a few Belgians, a couple of years ago I set up a campaign called I Vote Where I Live, to encourage other Europeans to register for the last local elections. Too few people do so, and I believe that voting is an important part of integrating. I am also chair of the Italian Partito Democratico in Brussels, a lively community with 250 members who live in Brussels, with one eye here, and the other on Italy and Europe.
I have two normal days, depending on where I'm working. If I go to the office, I take my electrical bicycle - which I call my Tesla - and pedal from Uccle to Boitsfort, crossing the Bois de la Cambre. The office is a bit isolated but surrounded by green; it’s quite an inspiring setting. I spend most of my time here analysing data and preparing presentations for briefings and meetings where I present our work.
Ilaria Maselli, an economist from Bari in southern Italy, has found a way to mix city living with the peace of the Walloon countryside
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But the office has a very open teleworking policy, so twice a week I can work from home. I often do that in the house my partner and I share in Boussu en Fagne, a small village in Namur province. When I work from home I mostly read and write; it’s my thinking time. There are many things I like about this country, but top of everything is the sense of fairness. I have the feeling that many of the opportunities
Two years ago, my partner and I bought our house near Couvin. The idea was to have it all by living in the city from Monday to Thursday and then being closer to nature from Friday to Sunday. We picked Namur province because houses were very affordable, and we fell in love with the building, which was once the house of the village priest. We’ve been spending the past two years renovating and discovering this amazing, laid-back side of the country, where the hills are green, the people live a quieter life and time doesn’t fly.
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From the East Wallonia is fast becoming the gateway between China and Europe By Saffina Rana
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allonia’s perseverance in forging stronger ties with China is paying off. Liège will become the European gateway of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2021, as Belgium becomes the first European country to sign up to Alibaba’s e-commerce initiative to make global trading easier for small companies. Alibaba has been dubbed the Asian equivalent of Amazon and eBay rolled into one. Financial analysts consider it one of the largest and most valuable e-commerce companies in the world. However, in terms of revenue, its annual profit calculated for 2018 at €35.1 billion came in at just around 21% of Amazon’s.
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The group’s logistics arm, Cainiao, has leased a 220,000 square metre site at Liège Airport and handed over an initial sum of €75 million to develop a European distribution centre, to begin operating in 2021. It will create 900 direct jobs and about 2,000 indirect jobs and will serve as a ‘Gateway to China’ for international companies while importing €176 billion worth of quality goods to China over the next five years. “It’s quite clear that Alibaba is coming to compete with Amazon,” says Michel Kempeneers, COO for overseas export and investment at the Wallonia Export and Foreign Investment Agency (AWEX).
“It will increase the export opportunities for companies in Wallonia – especially SMEs and very small companies, they can be more international and avoid having exclusive partnerships with Amazon.” The Liège deal is the cornerstone of a greater Alibaba initiative to reduce the barriers to international trading with China faced by small and medium-sized enterprises in countries that Alibaba would like to expand into. It wants to work with governments on a host of measures including mobile payment services, lowering tariffs and speeding up customs clearance on both sides.
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• The China-Belgium Technology Center's Smart Valley in Louvain-la-Neuve
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If we fish for a big fish from the start, a lot of little fish will follow
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• Sinotrans-operated charter flight between Liège and Hangzhou
Called the Electronic World Trading Platform (eWTP), the initiative was conceived by Alibaba founder Jack Ma in 2016 amid worsening trade wars between China and the US, and has high visibility in the G20 group of countries. Platforms in Malaysia and Rwanda are already under way, with Alibaba planning others in Russia and the United Arab Emirates. Belgium beat the Netherlands to become the lead European gateway, with the official signing of a memorandum of understanding between the federal government and Alibaba on 5 December. It was overseen by prime minister Charles Michel, who called it “a huge opportunity to boost exports and bring wide-reaching
• Inauguration EU-China train
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economic benefits to society, including employment opportunities to Liège”. Significantly, Liège was strategically placed to fit into this initiative with the creation of an EU-China Logistics incubator earlier in the year, using Liège Airport as a base. The first of its kind in Europe, the incubator was set up by AWEX, Liège Airport, and Logistics in Wallonia, to support Chinese companies wishing to do business in Europe by providing cross-border e-commerce services such as easy access to logistics and transportation companies. The latest developments with Alibaba follow hot on the heels of the creation of the China-
• Inauguration 4PX charter flight
Belgium Technology Center in Louvain-laNeuve, expected to be operational in 2020, and electric car maker Thunder Power moving its assembly line to Gosselies, near Charleroi (see sidebars). Kempeneers says he and his teams in Brussels, Namur and China have been working to put Wallonia on the map with big Chinese companies for the last five years or so. “We went for big fish, because we know that if we fish for a big fish from the start, a lot of little fish will follow,” he says. A case in point is the new Chinese freight train line between Zhengzhou and Liège, which
• Signing ceremony for Alibaba projects
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was inaugurated in October. The company ZIH already had two lines from Zhengzhou to the German cities of Munich and Hamburg and was looking for a third European destination. Although a rail link from Liège to Zhengzhou was first suggested during a 2013 Wallonia development mission to Henan province, ZIH didn’t commit to Liège until Alibaba announced Liège Airport as its European hub in 2018. Fired by a German private locomotive, the train now travels 11,000km from Liege to Zhengzhou twice a week, bringing goods from central China through Russia to Europe, and taking consolidated exports from Belgium, France and the west of Germany. They include Belgian beers and chocolate, auto parts, baby food and pharmaceuticals. The train line is an example of low-risk Chinese investment in Wallonia that Kempeneers describes as “non-critical and non-dangerous”, comprising goods and passengers coming to Europe. “They will make their way to Europe whatever the entry point. If it’s not Belgium, they’d come through the Netherlands or Germany or France, so we are very happy to welcome these goods and passengers here in Belgium,” he says. “But we also have some specific and more risky, more critical projects,” he adds, citing the €175 million deal to bring Thunder Power’s city car assembly line to Gosselies, of which €50 million came from the Wallonia regional investment fund, Sogepa. This will create 350 jobs, which should rise to 2,000 when Thunder Power moves its research centre from Milan to Gosselies and reaches full production capacity. It’s expected to produce its first cars in 2020, to be sold for substantially less than Tesla’s model S city car. “There’s a lot of competition not only from European electric car companies but also Chinese groups intending to come over to Europe because they are world leaders in this sector, so it’s a risk that we take, that the governments take, with full responsibility to say that we are not sure it will succeed but we will try. Because if we do not try we will never succeed.” China is one of the top five international investors in Flanders, whereas 80-85% of Wallonia’s investment outside Europe comes from the US. AWEX is trying to redress this balance. “It’s
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CHINA-BELGIUM TECHNOLOGY CENTER The deal Four business incubators to promote cross-innovation between the two countries. Around 200 companies expected (100 Belgian, 100 Chinese), on a self-contained site with a hotel, conference centre and parking facilities (phase one, pictured).
Where An 8.5-hectare-site at Louvain-la-Neuve Science Park near the E411 motorway.
Total investment €200 million from the entirely private Chinese United Investment Group (UIG-Europe). The investors are Hubai United Development Investment (90% shareholder) and JuXing International Technology (10% shareholder), an investment consortium of the Wuhan Eastlake International Business Incubator (Whibi) and Wuhan Technology Investment.
When The first buildings are expected to be operational in 2020. Around 20 Chinese companies are already in an adjacent building, waiting to move in.
Jobs created 1,500 (60% Belgian, 40% Chinese)
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important for us to avoid exclusivity or monoclients for exports, investors and investments in Wallonia,” says Kempeneers. “With China looking to expand its markets away from the US, Wallonia is the right place at the right time right now, to reap the benefits.” However, the imbalance comes under scrutiny in a report by the Egmont Royal Institute for International Relations in Belgium, published by the European Think-tank Network on China in December, and Belgium is flagged up for not having a coherent policy on Chinese investment in Wallonia and in Flanders. The report states: “There is apparently little to no dialogue between regions on the implications of growing Chinese investment in the country, not only in economic terms but also in terms of its impact on values and influence.”
THUNDER POWER The deal The assembly of the Chloé electric city car (pictured), named after the granddaughter of Thunder Power CEO Wellen Sham. The model is easier to build than the Sedan initially envisaged, which would have required the roof of the factory to have been lifted.
Where Gosselies in Hainaut, at the site of the former Caterpillar heavy machinery plant, which closed in 2016 with 2,000 job losses when the US manufacturer pulled out.
Total investment €175 million, of which €50 million comes from the region’s investment fund, Sogepa.
When First cars expected in 2020, expected to be priced at 40% less than Tesla’s model S.
Jobs created 350 in the first phase in 2020. Expected to rise to around 2000.
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Kempeneers agrees and is keen to put forward a reason for the lack of dialogue on Chinese investments. “We are competitors so we try to have different networks. There’s clearly competition,” he says. It's a key reason why AWEX decided to focus on relatively unexplored regions of China ten years ago, he explains. Security issues surrounding technology companies close to the Chinese state have been cropping up in headlines across the US and Europe, since any company managing the infrastructure over which data flows could get direct access to whatever passes through its system. Kempeneers believes opening up to China’s digital economy is a risk worth taking. “We are in the middle of Europe, we are the most open country and the most favourable for investors. The Chinese are worldwide investors and market leaders now. We cannot say it’s too dangerous with the Chinese so [they should] keep out of Belgium. We have to stay open.” He also thinks Belgium is probably the safest place in Europe. “We have the Nato headquarters, the EU headquarters, and all the big international companies have some headquarters here. There’s a lot of expertise in cybersecurity, and security in terms of people, so even for the Chinese, it’s good to choose Belgium because they know we are more protected than say Greece or the Czech Republic or Poland or Portugal,” he says.
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Organic uprising Wallonia is enjoying a boom in the organic food market By Sarah Crew
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rganic food is everywhere. No longer the preserve of farmers' markets and specialist stores, consumers can now pick up organic produce in a range of outlets, including supermarkets, artisan shops and vegetable box schemes. The variety of produce on sale continues to rise, from seasonal fresh fruit and vegetables to dairy, delicatessen items and alcohol. And the growth in the market looks set to increase. A survey by the Walloon Agency for the Promotion of Quality in Agriculture (Apaq-W) showed that 80% of consumers expected to eat more organic produce in the future. Th is figure rose to 87% among those aged 18 to 24. The study of 1,500 people in Wallonia and Brussels confirmed the interest in the development of organic farming, said Apaq-W, who carried out the research to better understand shoppers’ attitudes and expectations. Director Philippe Mattart said “the loss of confidence in produce originating from the agriculture industry has led consumers naturally toward organic”. He believes the next challenge for the Walloon agency is to “link the local production market and short food supply chains with the organic market” and provide consumers with more detailed information. Over the past few years, organic farming has established itself fi rmly in the region. In Wallonia, one farm in eight is organic, representing 91% of organic farming land in
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We want organic food in schools, hospitals and creches
Belgium. The consumption of organic produce is similarly rising and now stands at 4.2% of the average household basket. The Walloon government has been actively supporting the sector. In 2013, it initiated a strategic development plan for organic farming as part of Horizon 2020, an EU research and innovation programme. With the objectives of this plan already reached in December 2017, the target has been raised to reflect the boom in the organic market. An additional investment of €3 million has been earmarked to reach the following increased targets: organic farming on 18% of available agricultural land, 2,000 organic certified farmers and 6% of all food sales.
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The agency announced the results at the launch of a campaign in the autumn to promote organic fruit and vegetables, the most popular organic produce for consumers. Under the banner ‘Local organic, natural beauty’, it aims to boost local production and provide information on the rules and regulations surrounding the organic market. Promotional initiatives included animation videos, posters distributed via producers and stores, and an online competition to win local organic produce publicised on social media. The launch event was held at La Ferme de la Vallée, a thriving organic farm in the Sambre region of Wallonia. Apaq-W in-
vited agricultural minister René Collin, organic certification organisation Certisys and Wallonia produce ambassador Gerald Watelet. Collin underlined the positive context of organic farming in Wallonia and the means put in place, notably in the framing, research and promotion, to ensure the development of local organic farming, while maintaining its credibility and quality. “We want organic food in schools, hospitals and creches, prioritising organic and local food production, as well as raising awareness and a sense of collectivity,” he said. La Ferme de la Vallée’s director, Daniel Deprez, described the farm’s successful transition from growing flowers to an organic business selling a complete range of produce. He mentioned the farm’s practice of harvesting tomatoes in the autumn and transforming them into various preparations so customers could find items all winter. “It’s better than heating greenhouses all winter, which is not part of the organic philosophy,” he said. apaqw.be
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• Laforêt Pont de Claies on the Semois river, Namur province
Waterworks Wallonia’s tourist agency has chosen water as its theme for the coming year
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allonia Belgium Tourism has decided to make 2019 the year of water. The tourism agency is planning to attract tourists with a series of events that put the region’s lakes, rivers, spas, canals, mills and waterside communities in the spotlight. Wallonia: Land of Water was chosen as the theme following a number of surveys and re-
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search into what tourists are seeking when they visit the region. The offering will be split into three broad sections. On the Water gathers activities such as kayaking, boat cruises and swimming; By the Water is a showcase for walks, cycling, attractive towns and waterfront restaurants and accommodation; and the Benefits of Water is all about relaxation, wellbeing
and good food. Among the regional highlights in focus are the thermal baths of Spa, local fish recipes like escavèche de Chimay, industrial heritage such as boat lifts, dams and water mills, as well as traditional regattas and family water parks. See the website for the full programme. wallonialandofwater.com
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King of comedy A 47-minute animated romp through 35 years of Belgian history is a surprising hit By Sarah Crew
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ne of the surprise crowd-pleasers at this year’s International Francophone Film Festival (Fiff) was the animation Leopold, King of the Belgians. As a prime promoter of French-language cinema, the Namur festival was a fitting launch-pad for the quirky comedy that’s entirely made in Wallonia. Combining history and humour, the jewel of a film succeeds in seducing audiences young and old. It’s the first major project for Mad Cat Studio, an artistic collective that operates from Na-
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mur and Liège. For co-director Matthieu Collard, the feature reflects the creative freedom of the studio’s independent structure. “There’s much more artistic liberty when money is not involved. The film is extraordinary because we had the freedom to make the film we wanted,” he says, in reference to the complex structure and conditions surrounding the financing of the majority of films.
laboration with Liège film illustrator Cédric Vandresse, who approached Collard in 2013 with an idea for a little film lasting about five minutes on Belgium’s first monarch. They set up a non-profit with other animators to offset the precarity of their profession and the traditional producer/artist division in the film industry, which subsequently became a production studio cooperative.
Based in Namur, the former historian juggles theatrical roles with his work for Mad Cat. Both the studio and film arose from a col-
The political rise of the N-VA party in Flanders also spurred them into action. Collard: “There were a lot of negative things being said about
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Belgium and we didn’t agree. In the shared conviction to do something on Belgium, it was the story of Leopold that arose. We are proud of our history.” An additional appeal was the setting. “Cédric likes the gothic world and Leopold I was known as the vampire king, as well as having this obscure side to him,” he says. Interest in the project also included the fact that Belgium has played a significant role in European history. The film starts dramatically, with caricaturised monarchs astride seats of power as they
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carve up the continent in an intriguing board game. The unenviable task of constructing a new nation and maintaining peace in Europe falls on the shoulders of young German prince Leopold. While the story traces Leopold over a period of 35 years, neglecting other figures, the team aimed for historical accuracy. “We tried to recount the story of someone who gave his life to a country perhaps to the detriment of his family,” says Collard. Based on documents and letters, they saw that Leopold expressed concern about his son, the controversial Leopold II.
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In a comic tour de force, Leopold is surrounded by the familiar faces of currentday politicians, from prime minister Charles Michel and French president Emmanuel Macron to Bart De Wever and Didier Reynders. “It’s funny and it enables the audience to understand who and what these characters are. People like the surprise,” says Collard. Belgium’s unmistakable sense of humour is a unifying thread. “In one scene with the generals and Belgian army, when soldiers reply that they don’t have any rifles and anyway they
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couldn’t care less because they don’t have any bullets, the audience appreciates the self-deprecation,” he says. The enchantment of the film also lies in its sumptuous visuals: resonant and droll images of the royal palace in splendid dilapidation. “Cédric’s great force is that his drawings are at such a high level. Using the colours and light, the desire was to recreate oil paintings of the 19th century,” says Collard. While the Mad Cat team are proud of their first major oeuvre, they recognise the need to learn lessons. “We have to improve our production methods and timings. This project took us further than we had ever imagined
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and we made errors, but we also discovered a new profession,” Collard says. They are now focusing on the film’s distribution and screening at key festivals such as Anima in Brussels in February and Annecy in France in June. There is already a VO version of the film with English subtitles, as well as another dubbed in German, thanks to the film having been bought by Franco-German cultural TV channel Arte. Its medium-length format of 47 minutes is proving something of a challenge, however, as it is too short for conventional cinemas and the current mode is for series of 50-minute episodes, explains Collard. But with its educational credentials, viewings for schools in cultural centres are already under way, and
they also have their sights set on art-house cinemas amid other opportunities. The team is equally busy with future projects: short films and a full-length feature exploring the world of witches in a medieval setting. “It’ll have pine trees like the Ardennes, but the interior will be a mixture of Venice for its water setting and Prague’s darkness, witches, cats and vampires,” says Collard. The aim is to reverse stereotypes and present witches as a ray of sunshine within an otherwise bleak landscape. “The reality is that in the Middle Ages, witches organised parties among tightknit villages to encourage a genetic mix and they also passed on medical know-how,” he adds. While technical and financial hurdles remain, there’s no doubting Mad Cat Studio’s creative self-belief and ambition. madcatstudio.be
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Shoot to thrill Liège cinematographer scoops MTV award for Beyoncé collaboration By Saffina Rana
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In another vignette, Beyoncé and Jay-Z stand regally dressed in white in front of the white marble torso of The Winged Victory of Samothrace while bodies of every skin tone are strewn in formations along the white marble staircase leading to it. According to art historian Heidi Herrera, “it interposes 21st-century black artists into the narrative of the white-centric, male-dominated, Western art space deeply rooted in colonialism.”
he MTV music video award for Best Cinematography this year went to Liège-born cinematographer Benoît Debie, for his work on the video for Apeshit by The Carters – the duo that is Beyoncé and Jay-Z. Debie (pictured) is no stranger to the stars. He has worked on music videos for Rihanna and John Legend, and is known for his atmospheric lighting in films with challenging scenes, such as his breakthrough feature, Irreversible, starring Monica Bellucci. Despite his stellar CV, though, he is modest about how he got involved with the Apeshit shoot. “I think Beyoncé had seen some of my work,” he says. “And the producer knew me, so things just happened.” Shot on 35mm film inside the Louvre in Paris, Apeshit is the debut track from The Carters’ last album, Everything Is Love. It’s directed by Ricki Saiz, who also directed Beyoncé’s Yoncé music video in 2013. The shoot took place over two consecutive weeknights in May, at break-neck speed after the museum had closed, says Debie. Full of visual metaphor and symbolism, the six-minute video reveals the power couple and their dancers, reinterpreting and upstaging some of the Western world’s most celebrated paintings and sculptures in a series of vignettes. In one shot, Beyoncé, in Burberry designer leggings and bikini top, dances hand in hand with a row of dancers in front of Jacques-Louis David’s 1808 rendition of the Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon I and Coronation of the Empress Josephine, reducing the opu-
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The effect is stunning. “The shots with the bodies on the white marble stairs are some of my favourites,” says Debie. “I love the contrasts. I used 35mm film because it’s so good at capturing different skin tones, and works well with the tones of the art pieces themselves. It also sees into dark shadows. You can’t get that sort of depth and richness shooting digitally.” In shots where the focus is on Beyoncé and the statues seem flat and lifeless in comparison, as with her depiction of the Venus de Milo, Debie says he simply “switched off the Louvre’s lights and used only the LED lights”. lent scene of power and authority to mere wallpaper behind them. Debie had only five days to prepare for the shoot. “It was challenging,” he says. “The museum had restrictions on the number of people we could have in the building and the type of lights we could use that were not too hot and wouldn’t damage the art. So I used LED lights and decided to shoot using a handheld camera myself. We also used a steady cam.”
Having had to shoot guerrilla-style in the Louvre, in the middle of the night, with all these challenges, would Debie do it again? “Oh yes,” he says. “It was great, and Jay-Z and Beyoncé were great. At the time we were not really aware that we were creating a music video that would have such resonance and impact, it was all very fast and focused. I think the results are wonderful.” tinyurl.com/Debie-video
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SERVING TIME For the centenary of the Armistice of World War One, a limited-edition watch was presented to dignitaries including Princess Astrid of Belgium, French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Angela Merkel. The bespoke watch – serving as a tribute to the fallen – was made by Liège company Col&MacArthur. Founded five years ago by Liège engineer Sebastien Collen and former Buckingham Palace Scots Guard Iain Wood-MacArthur, the business is based in Bassenge in the province of Liège. Fitted with a Swiss-made quartz movement and assembled in Belgium, the watch bears the initials of Augustin Trebuchet, the last soldier to fall before the Armistice at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. In honour, Bleuet de France flower of remembrance replaces the number 11 on the watch’s face. colandmacarthur.com
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© New Namur
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PERFORMANCE I WAS LOOKING AT 1 THE CEILING AND THEN I SAW THE SKY
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Following the Paris terrorist attacks of 2015, the Royal Opera of Liège decided to team up with Brussels’ Théâtre National to produce this ‘song play’. The musical/ opera hybrid by American composer John Adams and poet June Jordan tells the stories of seven people whose lives are forever altered by the earthquake that hit Los Angeles in 1994. It was inspired by one survivor’s testimony and is being performed in the original English.
A 1,000-year-old tradition in Bouge, a district of Namur, in which locals gather for the festival, procession and massive bonfire on the first Sunday of Lent. Chasing away the winter, the fire is fuelled with spent Christmas trees and dead branches gathered from the surrounding forests. While the main bonfire can be seen up to 20km away, the six smaller fires lit across the area can only be seen from the hillside in Bouge where thousands of people gather for the spectacle. A ceremony that speaks to pagan celebrations and communication by fire, Bouge’s annual event is living heritage at its finest.
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CONFRONTING REALITY Following the terrorist attacks in Brussels in 2016, Marianne Pousseur and Enrico Bagnoli, the duo behind Khroma theatre productions, decided to produce the American songplay I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky. It is being performed in Liège this winter. “We knew the work of John Adams, who composed the music, and we decided to produce the piece after the terrorist attacks in Belgium. We thought it was better to have a confrontation with this reality rather than keep on working on Massenet or Verdi. Those are wonderful, of course, but far from the problems we face every day in our countries. The show is about the impact of the 1994 earthquake in Los Angeles, about the ways the characters were divided before and after this traumatic event. It had much in common with the situation in Brussels and in Europe in general after the attacks.
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Different generations can see their societies differently. When it comes to Russia, the political upheaval of the last century combined with a rich art tradition makes the subject even more fascinating. That’s why Charleroi’s BPS22 is pairing contemporary artists Erik Bulatov (born in 1933 and still living in Russia) and Andrei Molodkin (born in 1969 and living in Paris). Both use colossal sculptures that are often just one or a few words; it’s not always the word itself but the way it is presented that tells the story.
Despite being produced in the 1990s, the work feels very contemporary. Unfortunately, the situation in the US – confrontations between young black people and the police, the racial problems, integration, immigration – has not changed much in the last 20 years. This production is a songplay, which means a mix of styles and formats: classical, jazz, gospel, musical and folk music. It is very cleverly written; there is a freedom in this kind of composing that is impossible to imagine in Europe. For Khroma, we have always been interested in the fusion of arts and languages; our performances are always a mix of theatre, music and visual installations. The more stratified it is in telling the story, the better it is for us. We have produced it in the original English. It is impossible to imagine another way to stage it because the world of June Jordan, the author of the libretto, is essential to the show and linked to the characters.” operaliege.be
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Binche Carnival is known the world over for its folkloric figures called Gilles, 1,000 of whom take to the streets in striped costumes, wax masks and wooden shoes. A change of costume is required for the big event – throwing oranges to the crowds. Another wonderful party is in Malmedy, where Cwarmê festivities are kicked off by the Grosse Police, carried on by folklore figures Haguètes and their inimitable dance, and finished with the burning of the Haguète, which ushers in the spring.
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. BINCHE: 3-5 MARCH carnavaldebinche.be
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