Wallonia - At the crossroad of Innovation in Europe
The Europe INNOVA Conference 2010 is being hosted by the Region of Wallonia in the metropolitan city of Liège. Wallonia is one of the three regions of federal Belgium and it is pursuing its own policies in areas such as economic development, training, applied scientific research, transport and regional development.
Wallonia is located in the backyard of the capital of Europe with speedy access to the vast majority of European markets. It also has many assets that can be exploited to address the challenges of innovation, including nine university-level colleges, more than 11.000 researchers and a highly skilled workforce, as 30% of the population has a third level diploma. For these and other reasons, Wallonia is home to many multinational companies and it also supports innovative start-ups, some of which are international success stories today.
The Walloon authorities are playing a key role in stimulating innovation and entrepreneurship by providing multiple financial incentives to set up business. The Region of Wallonia is also implementing cluster policies to support research and foster collaboration between companies, research units and training centres in sectors critical to the regional economy: aerospace, health, agro-industry, logistics, mechanical engineering, ICT and creative and green industries.
More about the Region of Wallonia: http://www.eutrio.be/belgium/wallonia-french-speaking-community/wallonia-french-speaking-community
More about competitiveness and innovation in the Region of Wallonia: http://economie.wallonie.be/competitiveness/
