In August 1999, SPI+ presented Liege’s strategic advantages to leaders in the global car industry at the University of Michigan Automotive Management Seminar in Traverse City, United States. The Economic Development Agency for the Province of Liege announced significant investment incentives for automotive companies, including the industrial park next to the famous Spa-Francorchamps Grand Prix track created exclusively for automotive engineering enterprises. Top priority for Liege is to create the best possible distribution opportunities for the automotive industry and car component suppliers. The Province of Liege has a long automotive tradition and is geographically situated in the centre of a network of more than 8 major car manufacturers.

New Belgian Government contains prominent residents from Liege

Following the Belgian national elections in June 1999, Governments at both federal and regional level have now been formed. In both the federal and Walloon Governments, as well as the Government of the French speaking Community with competence in the field of peoplerelated issues, Liberals, Greens and Socialists reached agreement on a coalition policy programme. The new federal coalition includes 2 Ministers from the Province of Liege: Laurette Onkelinx, Minister of Employment, and Didier Reynders, Minister of Finance. The new Walloon Government includes former Liege Airport official Michel Foret, who is now Minister of Regional Planning, Urbanism and Environment; Jose Happart, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, and Thierry Detienne, Minister of Social Affairs. In the new Government of the French-speaking Community Nicole Marechal has become Minister of Health.

Aerofleet provides sliding domes for new Chilean telescope

Liege based company Aerofleet has obtained a contract to provide sliding domes for the world’s largest telescope of the European Southern Observatory. The domes have been ordered by opto-mechanic company Amos, one of the main partners in this European project. According to Raphaël Van Vlodorp, Chairman of Aerofleet and Professor in Operational Research and Financial Management at Saint-Laurent, ‘The company is about to develop the imprint of the domes, then it will create the mould before producing the actual vacuum boiled piece itself’.

Aerofleet is the only company that designs and produces vacuum boiled moulds from composed materials, covering a range of products from swimming pools to airbags and nautical equipment. Stemming from aeronautic technology, its swimming pools consist of modular panels in honeycombs stratified with vacuum boiled glass-polyester fibre. Other services offered by Aerofleet are constructing and repairing ships and putting in full hulls. Apart from composed materials, the company realises most of its turnover in thermo-lacquer, a very resistant surface treatment. Having started only in 1990, Aerofleet’s capital has increased rapidly and the astonishing new contract confirms the company’s value and dynamism.
 

Liege based multimedia group Neurones opens new studio in Portugal

Multimedia group Neurones has inaugurated a new studio in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon. The new studio will employ 160 people and its objective is to increase the group’s production and animation capacity. Neurones’ home production has now gone far beyond national frontiers. The company’s presence in Lisbon stemmed from the need to enter new markets following its fast expansion and completes a network of studios and research centres in Austria, Canada, France, Germany, South-Korea and the United States.

Set up in Liege in 1993 by Paul Hannequart, Neurones has grown rapidly into an international company, employing 500 people and expecting a BEF 1.2 billion (Euro 30 million) cumulated turnover in 2000. Having obtained a leading position in the European virtual animation sector, the company produces animation series in 2 and 3 dimensions, while developing and distributing various animation products and cartoons for television. It is also active in the field of interactive animation and colouring, video-conferencing for businesses and institutions and voice synthesis. The Neurones group aims to become one of the ten largest producers world wide in the animation sector.