- Belgium: the Office for Foreign Investors (OFI), Walloon body responsible for attracting foreign investors to Belgium, held its first forum on 20 April devoted to the issue. In the presence of the Minister-President of Wallonia, Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe and his Minister for the Economy Serge Kubla, as well as different representatives from the diplomatic corps and foreign entrepreneurs, the forum drew a globally positive picture of foreign investment in the Walloon Region. The forum's interest lay especially in the results of a survey undertaken by Inra Marketing Unit among a large sample of foreign firms established in Wallonia. 202 companies took part in the survey, of all sizes, of all provinces and present in Wallonia for differing lengths of time (from over 25 years to less than 10). The results of the survey allow for the following conclusions to be drawn: i) regarding the reasons for locating themselves in the Walloon Region, 31% mention geographic regions and 27% economic and financial ones (systems of subsidies and aid, notably); ii) 50% of these companies declared that they intended stepping up their investments in the Region, whereas 46% believe they will remain stable. In addition, it is the larger firms, and generally present for a long time in the region, that tend to increase investments; iii) the sample also reports on points given to certain fields: 6.8 out of 10 regarding satisfaction at being located in Wallonia and 7 out of 10 for the productivity of Wallonian workers, confirming, with this last figure, the outcome of other surveys of the same type regarding the quality of productivity of Belgian staff in general and Walloon in particular. The social climate, the loyalty of the staff also receives reasonably high marks with 6.9 out of 10, whereas, conversely, the qualification of the labour force, while overall seen to be satisfactory, could improve (6.2 out of 10). Regarding infrastructure and the environment in general, business appreciation in Wallonia benefits from a particularly high score (7.3 out of 10) except relating to the quality and cost of sources energy; iv) direct and indirect national taxation is one of the greatest black spots mentioned by companies: for 66% of them, the tax system needs improving. The cost of labour is also a point that needs improving, as well as the time it takes to obtain authorisations (building permits, environment, etc.), often perceived as being too long. To conclude, although Wallonia has unmistakable assets, it can still improve its attractiveness. It is in this light that the Walloon Government has taken and will continue to take measures in the months to come to further attract foreign investors whose activities in Wallonia have tended to increase over the past few years as foreign investments in the regions have increased by some 20% in ten years.