TOP TECHNOLOGY CONT…
[BIZ/GOV: Liege, March 4] The meeting revealed some of the remarkable economic characteristics uncovered by the Basle Economics Group in its recent study. This study clearly showed the very considerable regional capacities in terms of research, and innovative business potential in chemicals new/performance materials, biotechnology and high-tech systems. The group was addressed by Julien Mestrez, president of SP+, the Liege economic development authority, and Wim Weijnen of the Limburg provincial government. The participants were introduced to a range of options offered by Liege in the context of its competitive clusters funded by the Walloon Marshall plan with specific reference to Mechatronics and Biotech. Mr. Weijnen gave the background to the top technology region, involving Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands noting that the innovative potential in this region is world class in the areas selected as a focus. He made special reference to Liège’s strengths in space science and biomedical materials. The Alma Grid was a great success in the biotech world and for the current Interreg4 program, EUR 72m were available. One of the programs will be Alma in silico. In future, he added, the partners in Meuse-Rhine will produce their own vision of the region, linking the extraordinary potential of cross-boarder partners in the area of development, education and dynamic business. The area is clearly on its way to becoming a European top region as envisaged in the Lisbon treaty, and Mr. Mestrez emphasized that the province of the Netherlands Limburg had provided the dynamism which has turned ideas into a concrete development and, in this context, we are talking about the ‘top technology region’. Mr. Mestrez made special reference to the role of Limburg’s Herman Vrehen in this success and regretted that he was no longer to be part of the project. Both he and Mr. Vrehen had seen Liege and Maastricht, both successors of the ancient principality, as natural partners. The next meeting among the partners will be in Maastricht on April the 22.
Within the context of the ‘top technology region’, there has been an initial bilateral meeting between the Dutch Province of Limburg and the Province of Liège. There was representation from 44 Dutch businesses, which came to meet their colleagues in Liege at the Sirris research center and the GIGA center (with its biotech focus).
Mr. Mestrez sketched the statistics of the region, specifically its heart in Meuse-Rhine, where, within a radius of 50 km., five regions from three countries, speaking 3 different languages, have a population of four million and 250 000 companies produce a GDP of EUR 71.4bn. In this region, there were five major universities, 19 tertiary institutions and 300 research centers. Mr. Mestrez pointed to 15 years of EU Interreg co-funding for almost 300 cross-boarder projects, worth EUR 115m.
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