Another social drama unfolds in Flanders. The car plant of Volkswagen in Vorst is doomed. Three to four thousand employees will lose their jobs, thousands more working for suppliers of VW will also become unemployed.
The management of VW clearly doesn’t know how to manage. In China they ‘managed’ to lose market share in a big way, from around 50% a few years ago to 18% today. VW is a loser.
So what can the hapless employees do? Well, find a dynamic car manufacturer to take over the factory. Where do you find them? In China! Chery, Geely, FAW, SAIC, they all want to expand beyond the Chinese border. Sure, manufacturing is cheaper in China than in Europe, but they all want to conquer the European (and American) market. They can’t do that by only exporting. They will want to produce in Europe.
Flemish politicians, workers of VW Vorst, get on the Hainan Airlines red-eye flight to Beijing and start talking to the car manufacturers of the future. And damn the Germans!
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