In Dubai, Belgium is struggling to modernize its business card
When it comes to selling abroad, Belgium and its regions find it difficult to stand out from the traditional image attached to the country.
Eddy Merckx, fries, chocolate, waffles and comics. Lots of comics. At the Dubai World Expo, Belgium and its three Regions seem to have had great difficulty in standing out from traditional image attached to the country when it comes to selling abroad.
If the Belgian pavilion designed by the Louviérois architect Vincent Callebaut is unanimously considered as a great success with its green facade, its semi-open restaurant and its popular rooftop, interior design and access to the “Arche Verte” On the other hand, left some of the participants who had made the trip this week to the wealthy Emirate for the Wallonia-Brussels week at the Universal Exhibition more perplexed.
Six personalities
The spaces on the different floors of the building are indeed very largely dedicated with the usual Belgian themes, even if these are presented through virtual reality or immersive projections that are the work of Belgian companies specializing in digital technology. The queue for the pavilion is “guarded” by six life-size cartoon figures by the Flemish illustrator Charel Cambré from the Amoras series. We find our inescapable five-time winner of the Tour de France – for the last time 47 years ago all the same -, as well as the astronaut Frank De Winne, the athlete Nafi Thiam, the triathlete Marc Herremans, the astrophysicist from Liège. Michaël Gillon, and Ilham Kadri, CEO of Solvay. Not sure that this is likely to attract visitors.
On the other hand, nothing or almost nothing on the new sectors of the future that are developed in the country in recent decades: biotechnology and pharmacy – one of the rare sectors where Flanders and Wallonia play in the same division -, green energies – the famous thermo-solar receivers or the green hydrogen of John Cockerill – or even the equivalent sector, one of the new calling cards of Belgian know-how.
“Let’s not forget that this is an exhibition for the general public. This Belgian business card has its added value.”
“There is nothing original,” admitted Pierre-Yves Jeholet, Minister-President of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (FWB). “But the fries, the waffles, the chocolate… That’s what people expect from Belgium. Let’s not forget that this is a general public exhibition. This Belgian business card has its added value “, he assured.” It is a choice. For the general public, we must continue to put on eye-catching products “, argued for her part Pascale Delcominette, the leader of Awex, who recalled that it was necessary to take into account the theme of the part of the Exhibition where the Belgian pavilion is located – mobility -, but also the sensitivity and demands of the different regions of the country. “But how we can better showcase our strengths will certainly be a part of discussions that we will have ” for the next exhibition, she added.
In defense of Belgium, it should be noted that many other pavilions located in the same area also only marginally address this topic of mobility. And that a good number of countries, like France for example, also hesitate very clearly between traditional clichés and visions of the future. But Bob and Bobette, Spirou and Fantasio as well as Eddy Merckx, it starts to date a little. And it is also and above all rather reductive. The Belgium of 2021 is a land of vaccines, digital technologies, connected electric bikes and aerospace companies, with a plethora of scientists international aura.