Key Finding 4: Companies are re-focussing on innovation and digitalisation

After the difficult year 2020, the majority of the companies are starting to re-focus on innovation (66%) and nearly all companies (95%) place digital transformation high on their agenda. Both innovation and digital transformation are indispensable to remain competitive in a very challenging key market.

In general, we see that most companies are increasing their focus on innovation activities compared to last year, however 33% is not. Only 4% of the companies is planning to reduce their focus on innovation compared to 2020. This evolution can probably be explained by the fact that in 2020 a lot of companies already reduced their activities on innovation due to the pandemic, but they are now clearly looking forward to re-increase their innovation efforts.

These findings are very promising for the economic development of our region. As many companies are heavily (80%) relying on exporting products, focus on innovation is the key driver to stay competitive in a very challenging global market. It will challenge the competition and it allows Flemish companies to realise their ambitious economic growth plans by delivering high-quality customised products and services.