Belgian-Macedonian Business Club

A business delegation organised by the VKW Limburg arrived May 30th in Skopje. The first business delegation since the creation of the BMBC was welcomed by the president Hilde de Saedeleir.

First visit point was High Tec Metal Works Slabinck, a company present since over 10 years in North Macedonia. Slabinck Skopje produces all medium and large series of cutting, sawing, CNC sheet metal, coil, tubing and bending. They provide metal solutions for MIG, TIG, and spot welding of steel, stainless steel and aluminum. The company exists for 200 years and is family owned in the 6th generation.

The second visit went to Quehenberger, an Austrian company providing all types of logistic services, from transport over warehousing to individual solutions. One focus is textile logistics, another one added value warehousing for retailers but also online stores.

After these visits, more meetings in the textile sector in Štip will follow.

VKW Limburg is an independent employers’ organization with more than 2,400 members from the Flanders region in Belgium.

The province of Limburg has 875 000 inhabitants, a GDP of 31,7 bil. €. Coal mining was important but has ended in this province. The region today is a centre for trade in the heart of industrialised Europe. It is part of the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion together with neighboring provinces in Germany, the Netherlands and Wallonia. Genk has heavy and chemical industry. The old Philips plant is now the site of a Research Campus, and the Hasselt University in Diepenbeek has a science park attached. The site of the former coal mine in Genk is now Thor Park with the research hub Energyville. The Haspengouw is Belgium’s major area for fruit growing, more than 50 % of Belgium’s fruit production is grown in the province. Limburg’s Tourism claim is to be a “Bicycle Paradise” (Fietsparadijs), it features also the “High Kempen National Park”.