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Joint economic missions: a major opportunity for Belgian exporting companies

Interview with Mrs Fabienne L’HOOST, Director General of the Belgian Foreign Trade Agency (BFTA)

What are the prominent features of the Belgian trade balance in 2019? During the first half of 2019, Belgium’s total trade balance surplus was just under EUR 6.7 billion, or EUR 1.8 billion less than the same period last year. This decrease was due due to strong growth in imports of goods originating from the United States (+9.3%, or + EUR 1.2 billion), Japan (+23.2%, or + EUR 1.1 billion) and Switzerland (+ 48.8%, or + EUR 1.4 billion).

In general, Belgium’s trade balance is mostly positive with respect to EU countries. In fact, Belgium exports more goods than it imports when it comes to business transactions with EU countries. Germany, France and the Netherlands have traditionally been Belgium’s main partners, both in terms of exports and imports. These three countries jointly accounted for 44.5% of the exports and 40.1% of the imports at the end of the first half of 2019. Despite the Brexit-related uncertainties, the UK remains a very important trading partner for Belgium, both as customer (4 th place with a share of 7.6%) and supplier (6 th place with 4.5%). At the end of the first half of 2019, 77.3% of Belgium’s exports were destined for other European countries, while 71.6% of our purchases abroad originated from Europe. Belgium also recorded a small trade surplus with Africa and Oceania after the first half of 2019. By contrast, over the same

period, Belgium’s exports to America and Asia in particular were smaller than imports. Our country therefore runs a trade deficit with these two continents. Outside Europe, Asia remains Belgium’s main partner: it accounts for 9% of our exports and 14.7% of our imports.

Could you give us a report on the economic missions conducted in 2019? Over the course of 2019, BFTA has organised two joint economic missions presided over by Her Royal Highness Princess Astrid in close collaboration with three regional agencies for the promotion of foreign trade: the Walloon Agency for Exports and Foreign Investment (AWEX), Flanders Investment & Trade (FIT) and hub.brussels, and with the Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation. © BFTA

Mexico - 16 to 24 February 2019 With a business delegation of 202 participants representing no fewer than 130 companies, the 2019 edition was almost 2.5 times the size of the last economic mission to Mexico in 2009. A total of 283 persons took part in this mission to Mexico, led by Her Royal Highness Princess Astrid, Representative of His Majesty the King. The five best represented sectors among the participating companies were the agri-food industry (23%), the ICT and telecommunications industry (10%), the pharmaceutical, biotechnological and parapharmaceutical industry (8%), and the energy, renewable energy and cleantech industries and the health and life services industries, each representing 7.5% of the participating companies.

The mission to Mexico, the world’s fifteenth largest economy and the gateway between the United States and Latin America, also coincided with the election of a new President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador – commonly referred to by his initials “AMLO” – who welcomed HRH Princess Astrid and the official Belgian delegation at the Palacio Nactional de Mexico City.

During the signing ceremony, a total of 15 contracts and agreements were signed in Mexico City. The majority of these contracts (12) were signed between Belgian and Mexican partners, whilst two agreements were concluded with a representative of a

© BFTA

Joint Economic Mission, Mexico, February 16 -23, 2019

Mexican public institution (B2G) and a last agreement on cinematographic co-production was signed between the Mexican Government and the Belgian governments (G2G).

People’s Republic of China - 17 to 22 November 2019 The Belgian economic mission to China was the high point of 2019 with a delegation that broke all records: a total of 630 participants representing 311 companies took part in this mission to Peking and Shanghai. Her Royal Highness Princess Astrid and the Ministers were received with the highest state honours and attended various official meetings. In addition, an activity packed programme allowed the companies to establish or strengthen links with local partners. to provide the participants in these missions with a more complete experience, BFTA launched an updated version of the website www.belgianeconomicmission.be in partnership with BOSA. With the precious support of Belfius, the mobile app devoted to economic missions received a completely new look and is now more interactive.

The Trade4U mobile app, which automatically notifies registered companies of new opportunities in foreign markets, has also been brought up to date. Our Statistics, Studies and Regulations departments also supported Belgian companies with their exports in the form of two sectoral studies: “Belgium Made Different – Industry 4.0” and “Belgian Life Sciences”.

The five best represented sectors among the participating companies were agri-food (22%), companies providing commercial services (17%), chemicals, pharmaceuticals and life sciences (14%), the luxury goods, fashion and textile industry (5%), and the energy, environment and cleantech industry (4%). These sectors were also the subject of numerous seminars and meetings during the mission.

Two large-scale official receptions with no fewer than 1,100 participants were held in Beijing and Shanghai. This was the ideal occasion for Belgian companies to invite their Chinese partners.

What are the highlights of BFTA’s activities in 2019? Coordination of joint economic missions and contribution to the logistics organisation of State Visits remain, of course, our most visible activities. However, 2019 was also marked by the technical and technological upgrade of our online platforms. In order Could you tell us a bit more about the publication “Belgium Made Different - Industry 4.0”? In what niches of Industry 4.0 are innovative Belgian companies active? This sectoral study was carried out in collaboration with our institutional partners and various sectoral organisations. It perfectly illustrates the position that Belgium occupies among the world’s best-performing nations in terms of developing a new and efficient type of industry. The Belgian industry’s added value, interest in innovation and R&D and the high productivity of its employees are illustrated by figures and international rankings.

Fifteen Belgian companies providing innovative solutions were interviewed as part of this study. These companies rank among the world’s best in at least one of the following categories: 3D printing, virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence (AI), data capture and processing, intelligent solutions and robotics.

4.0 Made Real for the Belgian industry by Sirris

An interview with Mr Herman DERACHE, Managing director of Sirris

What is the task of Sirris and what are its key figures? With a wealth of experience of 70 years, Sirris is the collective research and innovation centre for the technological industry in Belgium. Established on 8 high-tech sites (Antwerp, Ghent, Brussels, Kortrijk, Charleroi, Leuven, Hasselt, Liège), it gathers together 2,500 member companies and has a network of more than 200 partners. Each year, our 150 passionate experts support 1,500 companies in the realisation of their innovation projects (individual business projects or collective research projects). Our task is to help companies to make the right technological choices and to implement innovations to guarantee their sustainable economic growth and prosperous future.

What are your fields of expertise? Businesses who want to innovate can count on the expertise of Sirris in 3 major fields:‘the business of the future’, the product of the business’ and ‘the factory of the future’. Every day, 150 engineers, scientists and technicians explore the possibilities of over 20 innovative technologies. Thanks to Sirris, the combination of the right experts with a high-tech infrastructure opens up the path to innovation.

What services do you offer to companies along the 3 main lines which are “Product of the Future”, “Factory of the Future” and “Business of the Future”? At a time when competition is raging on the world stage, product innovation can take place by adding new functionalities and characteristics to products, making the products smart(er), connecting them, using other materials or entirely redesigning the products. Sirris focuses on these needs with a view to manufacturing the products of today and tomorrow hand in hand with businesses. With the support of Sirris, Lowist Toegangsbeheer, who installs and maintains automatic bollards for the public sector, managed to acquire an industrial concept that could be used to connect and integrate automatic bollards in the cloud and can operate the bollards remotely at any time. © Sirris

Beyond new products, other factors lie behind the drastic transformation of tomorrow's production: everything needs to go faster, be more and more accurate, smaller, customised, cheaper, more ecological, more complex etc. The integration of different (new) technologies is therefore essential within the production line. Operators will be supported in their role by cobots, vision systems, wearable solutions, tablets etc. The enormous amount of data that will be generated may also be used for the benefit of production processes. This is why we recently launched our 4.0 Made Real Pilot Factory, in which smart, digital solutions can be developed and demonstrated, to help companies discover the possibilities and opportunities of Industry 4.0 in practice.

Lastly, digital technology is affecting the way we do business. Digital-based innovation often has an impact on the product and the business model. Sirris helps businesses to combine the technological possibilities and the opportunities linked to the business models of the digital era which will be the foundations of tomorrow’s innovation.

In your opinion, what are the main challenges that await industrial companies in the years to come? The challenges on which we focus today particularly include the impact of digital technology on process, product and activity models, the potential of artificial intelligence smart connected products and digital production on the road to Industry 4.0. To meet these challenges, Sirris yearly invests over €1.5M in high technology infrastructure to support businesses in their journey of innovation and digitalisation. © Sirris