Belgium-Flanders region keen on Indian investments

By S. K. Ramoo

BANGALORE, JUNE 17. The Export Vlaanderen regional office at Bangalore, inaugurated by the Chief Minister, Mr. S.M. Krishna, recently is meant to promote exports and investments from the Flanders region of Belgium. It will also support Flemish firms to conduct business in India. The Bangalore office will be catering to Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Mr. Paul Hegge is the chief trade commissioner stationed in New Delhi and Mr. Jayant Nadiger, based here, is serving as its Trade Commissioner for South India.

Export Vlaanderen in the last two years has organised several trade missions in sectors such as ports, textiles, health care, environment, waste treatment technology, food processing and the software. It is planning investment seminars for Indian firms that are eager to set up offices in the Belgium Flanders region for penetration of the European market.

The Flanders region has become a centre for several companies, specialising in information technology and related fields, including e-commerce. It also houses several multinational pharmaceutical firms and is a manufacturing base for cars, buses and trucks.

Lernout & Hauspie (L&H) in Flanders is a global leader in advanced speech and language software for both home and office Its products are based on four core technologies - automatic speech recognition, text- to- speech, digital speech and music compression and text-to-text translation.

Flanders Language Valley is a cluster of high-technology companies, offering specialisation in the realms of speech, artificial intelligence and language. Many of them are building tailor-made dialogue applications for service-oriented customers, including banks and travel agencies. The Digital Signal Processing Valley has the inter-university Mircoelectronics Centre, one of the top research groups in the field. The region also has several world-renowned e-commerce companies. Agfa, a Flemish multinational, is in the forefront of medical imaging.

The City of Antwerp in Flanders has a flourishing global diamond centre. The Antwerp Port is ranked fourth in the world and second in Europe. It has the second largest petro-chemical complex, after Houston in U.S.

The Port of Ghent specialises in the shipment of fruit juice and storage of deep-frozen products. It also handles grain products. It is a base for the shipment of Honda cars to Europe. Volvo cars and Volvo trucks are assembled at the port town for worldwide distribution.

The Port of Zeebrugge, which witnessed a massive expansion in recent years, is a deep water harbour that provides access to large vessels and has emerged as a leading European port. Flanders assembles more than a million cars annually. The family- owned Van Hool is a major bus and coach manufacturer and has been exporting around 80 per cent of its passenger vehicles. Its luxury coaches are popular both in Europe and the U.S. It also manufactures industrial vehicles.

Every year consumers outside Flanders buy about 70 per cent of the trendy furniture produced in the region.

Kereon is a leading designer and manufacturer of light fittings intended to highlight architectural aspects of space and optimise light potential. Some 70 per cent of its turn over is exported.

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