On a proposal by the Minister of the Economy, Willy BORSUS, and as part of the Recovery Plan, the Government of Wallonia is launching a pilot phase of the administrative simplification procedure, Fast-Track, for strategic business projects. It is also putting in place a series of rapid measures aimed at making the Walloon administration a strong partner for businesses.
The aim of Fast-Track is to remove the administrative obstacles hindering strategic business projects, with the ultimate ambition of extending its successes to all Walloon businesses.
Indeed, to remain competitive and attract businesses, Wallonia must build a competitive advantage based on agility and administrative simplicity.
According to Willy BORSUS: “Through administrative simplification, we aim to attract more foreign businesses and encourage them to set up and grow in Wallonia. Simplify, simplify, simplify: that is the essential condition for reindustrialising our economic fabric. The intention is to make the administration a true partner of our businesses, by introducing a series of rapid measures and launching a Fast-Track procedure common to all Walloon administrations in contact with businesses for the most strategic projects.”
It is worth remembering that Wallonia has more than 81,000 private-sector businesses, and more than 290,000 if self-employed workers and SMEs are included.
On the Fast-Track pilot phase
Fast-Track aims to speed up high-potential business projects in Wallonia by removing bureaucratic obstacles, giving businesses direct access to the administrations, and ensuring consistent and rapid decisions.
Identified through in-depth consultation with public and private stakeholders, the main problems include a lack of administrative clarity, the need for business support, and excessive complexity.
The Fast-Track procedure aims to address these various findings as much as possible. A first phase will focus on a series of business projects deemed “strategic” for Wallonia.
To benefit from the Fast-Track procedure, any submitted project must meet 3 cumulative requirements:
- The project must be “multi-stakeholder” (e.g. permit application, investment grant application, support request, etc.);
- The project must create a minimum of 20 direct jobs;
- The project must represent a minimum investment of €10 million.
Depending on the effectiveness and development of the system, the eligibility criteria could be adjusted in future.
The General Secretariat of the Service Public Wallonie, assisted by the administrations involved in the Fast-Track system (SPW EER, SPW ARNE, SPW TLPE, Wallonie-Entreprendre, IFAPME, AWEX, FOREM), is responsible for launching the pilot phase.
The launch of the Fast-Track pilot project will be finalised between June and September 2024. The pilot project will be concluded in June 2025.
On the introduction of rapid measures benefiting businesses within the SPW
Ahead of the implementation of this pilot phase, actions to be quickly rolled out were identified to increase Wallonia's attractiveness, particularly in terms of business support and the optimisation of public services, including:
- Promoting the trust principle in relations with businesses;
- Fully automating the Only Once principle at all times;
- Broadening the outlook of SPW staff by setting up internships in businesses;
- Providing the possibility to initiate and follow multilingual procedures;
- Systematically promoting existing information tools in Wallonia (such as WalSpace, the 1890, Midas, etc.);
- Optimising the processes and procedures of the partner SPWs.
The quickly implementable measures will be rolled out progressively by September 2024.
According to Willy BORSUS: “Setting up internships in businesses for administration staff is a concrete and powerful way of strengthening ties, deepening trust and improving understanding between our administrations and private businesses. This project, supported by all the administrative units concerned who also embrace this simplification, is a major project for the Government. The Fast-Track pilot phase demonstrates Wallonia's determination to simplify all its procedures. In the long run, our Region must be recognised as a land of support and welcome for businesses, not least thanks to the trust we place in them.”