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Antwerp port authority freezes tariffs

The Port of Antwerp is to freeze its tariffs for 2010 in an effort to counter the effects of the financial crisis on its customers in the shipping industry, it was announced last week. In addition, for some labour-intensive cargoes, prices will actually fall by up to 10%.

The port authority reviews its tariffs annually, which typically involves an increase of 2% to 2.5%. Last year, as the crisis began to make itself felt, the port decided to raise tariffs by only 1.75% for 2009. Tariffs will now return to their 2008 level.

Alan Hope
(November 25, 2009)

Quotas for women in the boardroom

CD&V senator introduces proposal that she says will make businesses more profitable

Belgian businesses need to make way for more women in top positions, according to Christian-Democrat (CD&V) senator Sabine de Bethune (pictured), who last week proposed the introduction of a quota system. Of the 258 directors currently in Bel20 quoted companies, only 23 are women, or 9%.

According to the senator, who sits in the equal opportunities commission, the effects of the glass ceiling in the financial-economic sector and in the judiciary have led to crisis. A policy to increase the number of women in senior positions, she argues, could help resolve the problem.

Alan Hope
(November 18, 2009)

Caring with coffee

A new initiative from Flanders persuades coffee drinkers to support worthy projects

One year ago, the world was looking into the abyss as the banking system came close to collapse. Some people panicked. Others kept their cool. Ann Vereecken, marketing manager at Douwe Egberts Senseo coffee at Sara Lee Belgium, saw the crisis as a moment for reflection. “People made changes,” she says. “They became less materialistic. They saw that everyone is connected.”

Vereecken had just started at Sara Lee’s Grimbergen office, just outside Brussels. While the Belgian government was battling to save the country’s banking system, Vereecken saw an opportunity to take the company’s corporate social responsibility one step further and help people caught up in the crisis.

Derek Blyth
(November 11, 2009)

Leisure and learning projects get the go-ahead

Architects line up to compete for developments in Ghent and Brussels
The Waalse Krook site in Ghent, bounded on two sides by water

Two major architectural projects, one in Ghent and one in Brussels, took a step forward last week with the announcement of a short list of architects’ practices who will contend for the projects.

The Ghent development, known as the Waalse Krook, is a multi-media cultural complex which will take up an area bounded by canals near the university and the Gent Zuid shopping centre. At one point the site was intended as a new music forum, and plans went all the way to the appointment of an architect, before financial and other problems put an end to the project.

Alan Hope
(November 4, 2009)

Going beyond the dream

Studio 100 named Enterprise of the Year
Prince Filip (left) Gert Verhulst (middle) and Hans Bourlon

Studio 100, a Flemish TV production house that has grown in recent times to an international multimedia provider, was last week named Enterprise of the Year in a competition organised by Ernst & Young, BNP Paribas Fortis and De Tijd newspaper. Studio 100’s CEOs Gert Verhulst and Hans Bourlon, who share the top job, were earlier this year named Managers of the Year by the magazine Trends.

Studio 100 was set up in 1996 by Verhulst and Bourlon, together with Danny Verbiest, who at the time was the voice of Samson the dog in the TV series Samson & Gert. Verbiest left the company in 2005, and his place was taken by venture capitalists Fortis Private Equity.

Alan Hope
(October 28, 2009)

Bus-building business booming

Flemish company sells double-deckers buses to the US and the UK

Economic crisis or no economic crisis, vehicle manufacturer Van Hool, based in Koningshooikt in Antwerp province, has just taken an order for 250 luxury tour coaches for the US market. That brings the company’s total orders from the US this year to 380, out of a total construction of about 1,700 vehicles.

Van Hool is in partnership with the Orlando, Florida-based ABC, in which it holds a 33% stake. And while the company here is also involved in truck construction, in the US it only deals in coaches. And no ordinary ones at that – the Flemish company specialises in top-end luxury buses, often custom fit to the wishes of the client, such as the “Straussmobile” made for the touring orchestra of André Rieu, where seats were tailored to the measurements of individual musicians.

Alan Hope
(October 21, 2009)

Enfinity signs €8 billion contract with China

Flemish company to provide China’s first solar energy park

The Waregem-based energy company Enfinity announced last week that it had won a contract to develop large-scale solar energy projects in China. The contract is reported to be worth €8 billion over 10 years.

Earlier this year, Enfinity, which has been in business for only four years, announced it would build China’s first solar energy park, generating 10 mW, in Dunhuang province – a contract worth €27 million. Under the contract, the company will set up a joint venture with the state-owned China Guandong Nuclear Power Corporation (CGNPC).

Alan Hope
(October 14, 2009)

Vansteenkiste allowed home

Businessman declined single cell
(c) belga

Luc Vansteenkiste, the former head of the employers’ organisation VBO remanded in custody on suspicion of insider trading, has been released from Vorst prison in Brussels after eight days of detention. Vansteenkiste was imprisoned after he failed to cooperate in the investigation to the satisfaction of investigating magistrate Michel Claise. His detention led to criticism of the frequent abuse of the remand system.

Vansteenkiste was arrested two weeks ago. His wife showed up at the prison every day at 05.30 with clean clothes and toilet articles, but she was repeatedly denied access to her husband.

According to reports, Vansteenkiste was determined not to respond to attempts to pressure him into confessing. When a single-occupancy cell was found for him, he refused to move, and occupied his time by giving his two cellmates lessons in Dutch.

AH
(October 7, 2009)

Top businessman jailed

Arrest of Luc Vansteenkiste leads to protests
(c) Belga

The jailing of one of the country’s top businessmen last week has led to widespread outrage, with commentators lashing out at everything from the investigating magistrate’s heavy handedness to conditions inside Vorst prison in Brussels.

 

Luc Vansteenkiste (pictured) is CEO of auto parts manufacturer Recticel in Wetteren. He used to be the director-general of the VBO-FEB, the organisation of the country’s top entrepreneurs and bosses, which earned him the rank of baron granted by the King.

Alan Hope
(September 30, 2009)

Class-action law “a time bomb” for businesses, bosses claim

The proliferation of lawyers leads to congestion and delays

A new law introducing the concept of class action lawsuits to Belgium would be a “serious threat” to businesses and to the economy as a whole, the employers’ organisation VBO said last week.

The law is the brainchild of justice minister Stefaan De Clerck and consumer affairs minister Paul Magnette, and aims to tackle what is a major problem for the overworked Belgian justice system. At present, every plaintiff who brings a damages claim in a court case does so individually, and is represented by his or her own lawyer. In some cases, such as the trial of the directors of software company Lernout and Hauspie, the number of plaintiffs runs into the hundreds.

Alan Hope
(September 22, 2009)