“Assessing the impact of Alibaba’s mega-hub in Liège” is a report written by Jonathan Holslag, professor of international relations and Belgian China specialist. This sounds the alarm on the consequences of the establishment of the e-commerce giant Alibaba in Bierset. He was the guest of “It’s not every day Sunday” this February 12.
A little over a year ago, the Chinese giant Alibaba moved to Liège airport. Wallonia hoped to score a strong blow and create jobs for its population but also to be able to market Belgian products throughout the world. Today, barely 300 jobs have been created in Belgium and the benefits of this installation are still difficult to pinpoint. Worse: Alibaba would have set up there to spy on us. It is a report edited by Jonathan Holslag, professor of international relations at the VUB, which affirms that the company is “in the pay of the Chinese state”.
Invited on the set of “It’s not every day on Sunday”, Jonathan Holslag believes that Wallonia was naive in believing that Alibaba might support the Belgian economy and serve as a springboard for exporting our products to China. “The Chinese government has said that Alibaba’s goal is not to help Belgian SMEs but to avoid and bypass Belgian companies and bring Chinese industrial exports directly to the consumer”analyzes the professor who indicates that“surprisingly” China has been very transparent regarding its intentions on our lands.
According to our expert, Alibaba has also never hidden its intentions to conquer the European and Belgian market. Official documents would clearly state these.
A conquest of the Belgian market
Because Alibaba would be in the process of imposing itself on the Belgian market. Jonathan Holslag puts forward some figures: “Over the past three years, Belgian air exports have decreased and caused a loss of 60 million euros and at the same time Chinese exports to our territory have increased by 600 million euros”. Moreover, the Chinese products brought by Alibaba may meet different standards than ours, which is not favorable for our economy and our reindustrialization.
Jonathan Holslag’s report also states that Alibaba secretly collects our data and data, which can be very valuable to businesses and governments alike.
Also present on the set of “It’s not every day on Sunday”, Michel Kempeneers, the Managing Director of AWEX (the Walloon export agency) recalls that Alibaba is developing at the announced rate and should ultimately create 900 jobs in Belgium. The latter is optimistic and believes that the collaboration between Belgium and the e-commerce juggernaut is a “chance” for the economic development and for the influence of Belgium.
