Flanders welcomed 277 new foreign investment projects, good for a record amount of €5.4 billion in foreign investments and more than 5,000 new jobs last year, reported Flemish Minister-President Matthias Diependaele (N-VA) in the run-up to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
"Direct foreign investments and the associated number of new jobs are increasing. And this while we are living in economically challenging times. However, our logistics and central location, and especially our innovative ingenuity, continue to convince investors," Diependaele said in a press release on Sunday. "Flanders is more 'open for business' than ever."
"The number of foreign investment projects rose by 5% last year (+277), the number of jobs rose by 10% (+5,039) and the investment amount rose by 10%, to a record amount of €5,401,846,000," he said.
IT and chemicals
The increase in the amount is mainly due to various large investments in the sectors 'IT, Telecom, Electronics' (semiconductors), 'Cleantech' (recycling, battery parks) and 'Chemicals'.
In 2023, the number of jobs through foreign investments fell by 32%. This means that the number of newly created jobs in 2024 therefore increased compared to the year before, but remains lower than 2021 and 2022.
For the first time, the largest category of investments is in research and development (R&D), with a share of more than 27% of the projects (76 projects). The share of projects in production and logistics has also increased, while the share in sales and marketing has decreased.
The increase in the total number of projects in 2024 can largely be attributed to increased US investments. These rose by 27.66% compared to 2023, from 47 to 60 projects. The sharp increase in the number of jobs from US investments is striking: 1,764 jobs, good for a share of 35%.
