Foreign Direct Investment: Flanders

Europe/ Belgium/ Flanders/ Flanders Investment & Trade

Key Competitive Attractions

Foreign Direct Investment

Flanders is located at the heart of Western Europe, in close proximity to major consumer markers and business centres: Paris, London, Randstad, and Ruhr. Over 60% of European purchasing power is situated within a 500-km radius around Flanders. The region is also home to the city of Brussels, and the decision-making bodies of the European Union and NATO.

Competitive advantages:

Flanders accounts for 60% of Belgium's population, and 60% of the country’s GDP.
Competitive commercial property costs.
38% of the Flanders workforce aged 25-34 have attained higher-level education.
Multilingual workforce: Positioned between Europe’s three largest economies, the Flemish workforce benefits from excellent language skills, many speaking four languages.
R&D spending in Belgium has increased to 2.33% of the GDP, 73% of which is accounted for by business in Flanders.
Flanders has among the highest R&D spending in Europe in clusters such as ICT, totalling $7,011 per employee.
The universities of Leuven and Ghent rank among the 10 best research centres in the world (The Scientist, 2003).
World-leading nanotechnology and microelectronics research centre - IMEC - is based at Leuven.
Flanders’ seaports and airports are all well connected to the region's highway network, which links directly to Germany, France, the Netherlands and the UK, via the Channel.

Assistance and Support For New Business Investors

Flanders Investment and Trade is the regional investment agency, providing a range of free services, including to assistance, advise and support to new, relocating and expanding businesses in the region.

Flanders was ranked the highest in Europe for its Foreign Direct Investment strategy in the European Cities & Regions of the future 2010/11, published by fDi magazine. The region was ranked 7th in the overall category. Antwerp was ranked the 7th most attractive city in the category of small cities (between 250,000 and 500,000 inhabitants).

Incentives:

Flanders offers companies numerous R&D incentives, such as funding and tax relief for staff, to encourage innovative activities in the region.

To attract investment to the region and to support businesses already established in Flanders, numerous incentives for doing business here have been implemented, including tax benefits, recruitment support, R&D advantages, and training/retraining schemes. Detailed information on these incentives can be found on our website.

Existing Business Base

Flanders is home to a large number of companies, including multinationals and SMEs. The eight major sectors are automotives, chemicals, life sciences, renewable energy, logistics, ICT, food, and textiles.

Major Companies include: Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Schering-Plough, and Astra Zeneca (life sciences), British Telecom, Philips, and ST Microelectronics (ICT), BASF, Bayer, Kaneka, and Nippon Shokubai (Chemicals), Heinz, Procter & Gamble, and Tropicana (Food and Drink Production), Caterpillar Logistics, Deutsche Post, and NYK (logistics). Flanders is also home to multinationals such as 3M, Avnet, Baltimore Aircoil, Cargill Cerestar, Donaldson, Honeywell Johnson Controls, International/Controls Group, and Exxon

Knowledge Clusters: