A new airline opened at Liège Airport a month ago. It is an important cargo airline that links the airport of Zhengzhou, a city with a population of 10 million in the centre of China, and the one at Liège.

The Chinese cargo company, Navitrans, based in Shanghai, will provide the link between Zhengzhou and Liège Airport, with charter flights transporting 100 tons of freight on each journey twice a week. These aircraft is set transport material coming from the Taiwanese giant, Foxconn, currently dedicated to the manufacturing of the new 5C and 5S iPhones. This information has been confirmed by the words of Steven Verhasselt, manager of the Liège airport in Asia: “It will therefore be largely Apple products, and in particular the iPhone, which will arrive from China via this new link”.

Once in Liège, the iPhones will be distributed across all the markets in the European Union.

It is not without significance that the Walloon Economic Minister, Jean-Claude Marcourt (PS), accompanied by representatives of AWEX and Mecatech (one of the poles of the Marshall Plan), spent two days at Zhengzhou during a mission to China. The minister explained the choice of itinerary: “We are here on an exploratory mission but we are hoping to truly develop our relationship, particularly in logistics and industrial expertise, with this region of China”.

With the creation of a huge industrial zone built on the outskirts of the city of Zhengzhou, China wishes to make the interior of the country more dynamic, as explained by Li Taoran, director of the “people’s government” of Zhengzhou: “Of course, we are hoping to attract numerous foreign companies here and we are enthusiastic about the idea of working with Wallonia”.

Source: L’Echo, 03/12/2013