This envelope combines regional resources and those of the federal recovery plan. Its allocation will be based in particular on calls for projects, with a view to mobilizing a maximum of companies and public players.
In Wallonia’s budget, the digital strategy is contained in a very small line and a modest commitment of 18 million euros. But fortunately, this small budget line is supplemented by a fine range of specific funding, ranging from the “Digital School” program to business vouchers, including the W.IN.G fund or fiber optic equipment for business parks. led by Sofico. From now on, we must also add the important digital components of the recovery plans drawn up at the different levels of power. Adding all this up, we exceed the 550 million euros allocated to the Walloon digital strategy by 2024, assures Minister Willy Borsus (MR), in charge in particular of the Economy and Digital. The latter presents the new version of the Digital Wallonia strategy, initiated in 2015 and which is in its third version. It must, he says, serve as a “catalyst” to mobilize the various available budgets.
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In Wallonia’s budget, the digital strategy is contained in a very small line and a modest commitment of 18 million euros. But fortunately, this small budget line is supplemented by a fine range of specific funding, ranging from the “Digital School” program to business vouchers, including the W.IN.G fund or fiber optic equipment for business parks. led by Sofico. From now on, we must also add the important digital components of the recovery plans drawn up at the different levels of power. Adding all this up, we exceed the 550 million euros allocated to the Walloon digital strategy by 2024, assures Minister Willy Borsus (MR), in charge in particular of the Economy and Digital. The latter presents the new version of the Digital Wallonia strategy, initiated in 2015 and which is in its third version. It must, he says, serve as a “catalyst” to mobilize the various available budgets. These resources will be used in particular to finance projects developed by Walloon companies in the digital sector. The Region has indeed decided to act through calls for projects, through which actors are invited to present their solutions to a series of challenges or opportunities targeted by the authorities. “It is very interesting in the pilot or experimental phase, specifies the Minister. This makes it possible to launch a framework in complete transparency, to involve companies and then to draw conclusions from the results for the future.” Willy Borsus had already operated in this way for the treatment of used plastics (this had allowed the arrival in Wallonia of the Quebec group Lavergne as well as investments from Veolia and Sources Alma) or the establishment of a protein production chain plants, with the involvement of Cosucra. “Calls for projects are an excellent way to mobilize ecosystems, to make supply and demand work and to avoid strategies that are too top-down, adds André Blavier, director of communication at the Digital Agency The sector is clearly in demand since the previous calls for projects around artificial intelligence have attracted some 170 players. use of artificial intelligence. This is the case for Les Tartes de Françoise to optimize their production and limit the loss of material, as well as a hardware store to quickly find the appropriate keys and locks. “That was our objective and the answers go well in this direction: artificial intelligence is not reserved for advanced technologies, it is useful for everyone”, specifies André Blavier. At first, the t Digital Wallonia’s work was above all aimed at raising awareness, both among citizens and among public administrations and small businesses. From now on, we must move towards a more operational phase, with a view to concretely accelerating the digital transformation. And that is why calls for projects should multiply with Digital Wallonia V3. The calls currently in progress (see box) already represent an envelope of 17 million euros and others will follow very soon. To respond to this, companies or communities (several programs specifically target administrations) will often have to present themselves in partnership, including with research centres. In the end, we are close to the dynamic in place in the competitiveness clusters. And that is what the promoters of Digital Wallonia are looking for. Are the major groups present in Wallonia, such as Google or Microsoft, involved in these collective approaches as GSK and UCB can do in BioWin or AGC in GreenWin and MecaTech? “I see an attitude of openness and not withdrawal, answers Willy Borsus. This is the case, for example, of the Google Academy in Hainaut, which has offered to structure a series of actions at Walloon level. We are in a field where technologies evolve very quickly, thanks to the progress of some and the research of others. I therefore salute this spirit of openness, including on local projects.” It should be noted that the calls for projects are designed to remain widely accessible to SMEs, even VSEs. To respond to the transversality of digital issues, the Digital Wallonia V3 strategy is broken down into 20 action programs. Some seem obvious like CyberWal (dome of cybersecurity initiatives), Digital Commerce or Smart Region. But others may surprise like these programs dedicated to the digitization of social economy enterprises or to the agriculture of the future.”It may seem unexpected, but digital technology is capable of bringing a lot to agriculture both in production performance only in a refined management of the use of inputs, says Willy Borsus, who is also Walloon Minister of Agriculture.Today, from a photograph of a field, we can know the health of the plants almost to the nearest square metre. From then on, the farmer no longer treats his field globally but in a targeted, fragmented way. This significantly reduces the use of fertilizers and phytosanitary products, which is good for both both from an environmental and a financial point of view, especially given the current prices of these inputs.” If there are so many programs, it is because digital strategies must be very broad. And this is somewhat their pitfall: they must both act in a very broad way to bring as many sectors and companies as possible into the digital transformation; and in a very targeted way in the hope of bringing out digital champions, like of course Odoo, the company founded by Fabien Pinckaers, named Manager of the Year 2020 by Trends-Tendances. “We are starting to see a promising ecosystem emerge, concludes Willy Borsus. The translation into economic activities and jobs is now becoming a reality. When I see the evolution of a company like I-Care in predictive industrial maintenance, I say to myself that there are remarkable things that are growing here and whose notoriety will soon explode. Digital in Wallonia is undoubtedly at the same stage as biotechs a few years ago.”
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