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Wallonia makes Financial Times’ Top 20!

Wallonia occupies sixteenth place of the regions of the world that are most attractive to investors.
Wallonia occupies sixteenth place of the regions of the world that are most attractive to investors.

The Financial Times says so: Wallonia is an ideal region to invest in! It came 16th in the overall rankings for European regions that are most attractive to investors. The Walloon region is the only Belgian region to have earned a place in this coveted record, published annually by the prestigious financial daily.

In terms of subcategories, the Walloon region came 7th for FDI strategy, with regards to all other European regions. In the West European Regions category it earned 8th place overall and 3rd place in terms of FDI strategy. The Walloon Region also stands out in the Mid-Sized European Regions category, which considers regions with between 1.5 million and 4 million inhabitants. It came in 6th position in the overall rankings, (9th for infrastructure and 4th for FDI strategy).

This is solid recognition for the work achieved by AWEx, (The Walloon Export and Foreign Investment Agency), which highlights Wallonia’s pull factor on a day-to-day basis and also thanks to dozens of annual initiatives. This classification is made on the basis of an independent compilation of data and information on:

·         Economic potential: rate of employment, inflation, R&D, number of projects, patents, growth, etc.

·         Human capital: literacy rate, number of universities, university colleges, (hautes écoles), life expectancy, lifestyle, etc.

·         Actual costs: average salary, house prices, minimum salary, tax system, energy costs, etc.

·         Infrastructure: internet quality, airports, ports, maritime traffic, logistic performance, road quality, rail service quality, etc.

The jury was made up of Douglas Clark (Director – Local connections), Laurent Sansoucy (Director – OCO Global), Barrie David (Senior Research Consultant– Cushman & Wakefield LLP), Michal Kaczmarski (Editor Europe – FDI Magazine), Cathy McReynolds (Senior Investments Analyst– FDI intelligence) and Stuart Miller (Associate – Miller Rosenflack LLP).

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