The Province of Liege was represented at Bio'98 International in New York in June. Representatives from the University of Liege and from SPI+ attended this international biotechnological meeting and exhibition, which included over 600 speakers in more than 120 workshops and sessions. The international forum brought together around 3,500 biotech leaders from over 30 countries and offered more than 250 exhibit spaces, displaying technologies, products, educational tools and services from every segment of the biotechnology sector. The Province of Liege was invited because of its impressive wealth of knowledge in the area of biotechnology and its related fields.

Port of Liege conquers second place in Europe

In 1997, the autonomous Port of Liege overtook Paris to become Europe's second trading river-port, after Duisburg in Germany. This was achieved by an excellent trading performance, which saw volumes increase by 90% from 1988. This growth has continued during the first months of 1998 with much of the success due to Liege's situation in the heart of large hydraulic European networks.

1997 saw the port of Liege realise its best performance yet, with 23,872 million tons of transhipment over water, railways and roads. River and maritime trade has increased to 17,246 million tons, and Liege now represents 70% of international trade over water in the Walloon navigable network. Due to its growth, the Port of Liege is now in need of new transhipment areas and the administration council has submitted a request to the Walloon Transport Minister Michel Lebrun, who now is examining possibilities. 

Médias Waimes attracts clients from all over Europe

The success of the Médias Waimes (WM) Group has been marked by the opening of a new TV studio, Illusion. The studio joins a range of facilities already on offer and was opened by the German community media Minister Karl-Heinz Lambertz. The MW Group success story started with the opening of a state-of-the-art, multipurpose audiovisual centre in the quiet village of Waimes in the Province of Liege.

The Group, founded in January 1998, comprises five independent units, each specialised in different aspects of audio, video and multimedia activities. On the company's client roster one can find artists such as Latoya Jackson, Diana Ross and Shirley Bassey. According to founder and Managing Director Pierre Piront "Our location close to both the French and the German borders means that the MW Group attracts close to 50% of its clients from Germany, with another 35% coming from France". Piront expects that the launch of MW as a fully-fledged multi-media centre and the inauguration of the new TV studio facilities will boost the Group's turnover from 45 million to 75 million BEF this year.