Liège, European Hub for Biologistics
Liège has decided to leverage its existing infrastructures, its exceptional bioscience environment and its unique multi-modal transportation capabilities to become the leading bio-hub in Europe.
The news was released at a press conference at Liège Airport on March 19, 2008.
The key-note speaker was no less than Mr. Jean-Claude MARCOURT, Minister for Economy and Employment of the Region of Wallonia, who is already convinced of the potential of the new "bio-log" hybrid activity sector that is now emerging at the intersection between logistics and biotech.
Indeed, a study ordered by the GRE agency from the consulting firm Intraco and presented by Raphael CABOLET to the press has shown that the assets already present in the region of Wallonia in terms of academic excellence, state-of-the art logistics infrastructures, biotech companies and incubators as well as the availability of a well- educated workforce could be harnessed and coordinated to make Liège the leading bio-hub in Europe.
Serge PAMPFER, Managing Director of the Wallonia Biotech Coaching incubator and co-Chairman of the GRE Steering Committee for Liège Biologistics, explained that the emergence of an increasingly personalized medicine will generate new needs for innovative services and solutions in how therapeutic treatments are being delivered to patients. The expected evolution of biologistics is bound to encompass such applications as smart packaging, biomaterials conditioning and anti-counterfeit systems.
Luc PARTOUNE, Manager of Liège Airport, underlined that his express cargo airport is already home to the European hub of TNT and is also already operational in specialized logistics applications like the transport and storage of perishable goods, thanks to its dedicated sanitary inspection station.
The initiative is actively supported by Logistics in Wallonia, by the Walloon Export and Foreign Investments Agency and by SPI+, the economic development agency of the Province of Liège.
An operational team has been set up to coordinate the combined efforts of public and private partners, to study the requirements of biotech companies, to list the existing logistics service and solution providers and to entice companies in the biotech and logistics fields to set up bio-log activities in the area.
Very positive contacts have already been made with representatives in Memphis (Tennessee) and Singapore, two regions that are already positioning and advertising their assets and infrastructures in biologistics.
The GRE operational team will be in Singapore on the occasion of the BioMedical Asia trade meeting in mid-April and at the BIO 2008 conference in San Diego in mid-June to present the initiative and make
commercial contacts with prospects and potential partners worldwide.
