ROADMAP 2025: an economic horizon
Ever since 2002, our economic Roadmap presentation, which is held every five years, has blossomed into an event which our members eagerly look forward to.
Under the guidance of McKinsey & Co, we created Roadmap 2025: an outline of how we work and what we fight for.
During the launch in 2019, we shared our vision for the development of our region as we enter this new decade in a spectacular and entertaining way. The plan’s main topics are smart logistics, health, talent and technology. Smart, digital and future-proof are the key words.
It took over half a year of prior planning and the involvement of more than a hundred prominent stakeholders to launch Roadmap 2025.
Our main objective through this plan for the future is to answer the question of which challenges tomorrow’s entrepreneurs will be facing. Ten years ago, fiscal matters and labour costs would have been at the top of the agenda. But today, our main concerns have shifted towards digitalisation, an ageing population and energy transition. Roadmap is, in this regard, the compass that guides the way we work; it is a strategic meditation instrument that helps us streamline the services we offer our members. It plays a key role in determining which training courses we set up, which learning networks we establish and which economic missions we organise.
Beyond our region
Moreover, collaborating with McKinsey helps us look beyond just our regional horizon. Within the last few years, the international context in which our port and industry compete has become unrecognizable. During the information sessions and conferences we hold for our members, we address these topics in detail and raise awareness about the latest developments.
Finally, Roadmap is also supported by a large platform of stakeholders which strengthens our position when negotiating with governments. Ministers and top government officials know that our advocacy is carefully thought through and not an impromptu reaction to recent developments. In our plan for the future, not only are the ideas we fight for and the projects we hope to launch backed by numbers and facts, but they are also endorsed by the majority of the business community.
Our approach
Our very first Roadmap, back in 2002, led to the creation, within our Chamber of Commerce, of a permanent consultation platform with the industry sector. The integration of the port sector and an alliance with the diamond sector followed a few years later. We will explain these platforms in further detail in the next chapter.
Together, these stakeholder structures which we have been building these past fifteen years form the powerhouse we use today to keep important strategic topics on the political agenda. But these platforms were also the thinktank
that defined the contents and projects of our current Roadmap 2025.
In association with the University of Antwerp and Antwerp Management School.
More information: www.uantwerpen.be and www.antwerpmanagementschool.be
