VOKA Metropolitan: a new strong concept
VOKA, the Flemish enterprise network, will from now on concentrate its activities in the Brussels metropolis in a new brach called “VOKA Metropolitan”. By doing so, The VOKA Brussels Committee wants to offer better help to its members eager to do business in Brussels.
This new development was officially announced at the annual autumn lunch offered by the VOKA Brussels Committee last Monday, 23 September. Mr Rudi Vervoort, Minister- President of the Brussels Capital Region was one of the many guests.
Economic activities are concentrating in metropolitan areas and the areas around metropolitan centres. These metropolises push economies upward and make them cross regional as well as national borders. Hence, each Brussels company is being opened new perspectives in terms of business opportunities, accessability, networking, space and talent. In its quality of European decision centre, Brussels holds a unique potential. In order to fully benefit from this economical value, one must keep one’s focus on Brussels as a metropolis, the VOKA Brussels Committee says. As a consequence, this means that one does not only speak about the Brussels Capital Region, but about an area of more or less 40 kilometres around our European capital, i.e. an economical metropolis that reaches towards cities like Ghent, Antwerp and Louvain.
What VOKA can offer to the Brussels metropolis
VOKA Metropolitan
VOKA Metropolitan’s mission is twofold: networking and advocacy.
Networking
With a series of networking activities, companies are being offered a better access to the international community, the European institutions and the international business-world in the Brussels metropolis. Secondly, a helping hand is reached out to the local (national) business-world, to decisionmakers and social stakeholders shaping the Brussels metropolis.
Advocacy
VOKA’s permanent mission is to improve the conditions for doing business successfully in the Brussels metropolitan area. Focus is therefore being kept on those areas where a collaboration between Brussels and Flanders is essential, e.g. areas such as the mobility inside and the accessability of the Brussels metropolis. Companies must be offered space that fits inside a wider regional planning for the Brussels metropolis, and talent must be mobilised towards companies active inside the metropolis.
More information on this initiative can be found in the brochure that can be downloaded here.
Mr Joris Tiebout, President of the VOKA Brussels Committee and CEO of Abattoir SA has started his last year as VOKA Brussels frontman. He is enthusiastic about the new dynamism and shares the views of the Flemish enterprise network on the metropolitan vision.
