Belgium: one of the top 5 investment destinations in Europe!28/08/2020
According to the “Ernst & Young's Belgian Attractiveness Survey”, Belgium welcomed 267 Foreign investment projects in 2019, resulting in the creation of 5401 jobs.
Belgium retained its 5th ranking in the top European destinations for FDI, behind France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain.
The top investors in Belgium in 2019 were the United States, France and the United Kingdom. The Netherlands and Germany completed the top 5. The main activities which attracted a large number of investments are sales & marketing, manufacturing and logistics.
Regarding the breakdown per region, Wallonia and Brussels recorded 64 and 76 investment projects respectively in 2019, i.e. an increase of 33% for Wallonia and 25% for Brussels. In terms of job creation per project, Flanders and Wallonia continue to maintain a strong trend of more than 27 jobs per project, while the projects in Brussels created fewer jobs.
Here is an indicative list of South African companies that already have a strong presence in Wallonia or Brussels: Bidfood (the market leader in Belgium for the supplies and services in the hospitality, institutional, catering and retail sectors); Dimension Data (the South African IT company made an investment of € 7 million in a data centre in Wallonia in 2016); MTN (took 20 % shareholder in Belgacom International Carrier Services; Mondi and Sappi (two major operators in the paper industry in Belgium); The Airplane Factory (created a joint-venture with Sonaca Belgium in 2017 to assemble and certify internationally two-seaters aircraft).
If you are interested in investing in Belgium, do not hesitate to contact our office in Johannesburg:
+27 11 463 03 78
johannesburg@awex-wallonia.com