Successful conclusion of industry mission with two MoUs signed on final day

For the first time ever, Flanders Investment & Trade (FIT) has organized an overarching industrial mission to facilitate knowledge exchange within companies and across industries. During these three intensive days, there was significant cross-pollination among sector federations Agoria Vlaanderen, Fevia Vlaanderen, essenscia, and Fedustria Vlaanderen, as well as their French counterparts.

During this mission, two Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) were signed at two distinct locations, namely at the French companies Lesaffre and Euratechnologies. These agreements were signed in the presence of the Minister-President of Flanders and François Decoster, Vice-President of the Hauts-de-France Region responsible for international relations. 

The first MoU involves a cross-border project in the Health Tech sector. The second MoU establishes a collaboration between the startup ecosystems of Flanders and Northern France. This agreement involves Euratechnologies and six entities from Flanders: Corda Campus, Limburg Startup, The Beacon, Leuven Mindgate, Wintercircus Ghent, and Hangar K. The signing of this MoU marks the first major accomplishment of the newly formed "Hubs4Growth" consortium, which unites five leading Flemish startup ecosystems with ambitious plans for startups and scaleups. The goal of forming international partnerships is to fast-track the global reach of Flemish startups.

With the signing of these MoUs, the industrial collaboration between Flanders and France has been elevated to a new level and has earned formal recognition. Both the sector federations and FIT, as well as the Minister-President of Flanders, reflect positively on this inaugural event.