Tweet30-08-2009 om 17:35 by Maastricht Region Branding Foundation

The German Federal Minister of Transport Wolfgang Tiefensee and the Federal Minister of Health Ulla Schmidt came to take a first-hand look at the cross-border European science and business park, Avantis, in particular, at its logistical infrastructure in respect of rail. At the invitation of the Aachen Social Democratic, mayoral candidate Karl Schultheis, Hans Joachim Sistenich of AVV GmbH also took part in the meeting.

Interest was focused on linking Heerlen and Aachen via Avantis in the coming five years. Mr Schultheis said, ‘If it is possible to solve the much more serious problems on the Polish border then it must be possible here.’ He also pointed out that Avantis was not only of inland importance, but it could provide a direct rail link to the West. Together Messrs Schultheis and Tiefensee were supporting the project at the national and state level. Ulla Schmidt supported the rapid development of the area, and René Seijben, the director of Avantis, gave the guests from Berlin an optimistic prognosis of the future development of the region, which would receive a major boost via the link between Avantis and Aachen’s RWTH University campus.

Albert Einstein’s thesis that imagination is stronger than knowledge, as knowledge is limited, has lost its geographical validity in a Europe without borders, because knowledge has been without borders for much longer. The best example is the European science and Business Park at Avantis on the borders between Aachen and Heerlen. It offers newly established, technology-oriented companies in the worlds of production and science an ideal location - the best of both worlds: a choice of tax regime; subsidies from the Netherlands and Germany and the European Union; two business addresses, with access to two markets and an international network. These aspects characterize the unique quality of this location.

In the immediate vicinity, there are five universities and a great many colleges, and major research and development facilities of world status, and this makes Avantis the key to giving an international profile to the science and technology region in which it finds itself.

Shoulder to shoulder with the RWTH Campus, where in the coming years the biggest research site in the world will come into existence, providing research, knowledge, business and the citizens with new borderless cooperative prospects. The key to this is the direct link between the Aachen city region and Parkstad Limburg via Avantis, and current planning should lead to 4,500 travelers per day being able to travel there without making changes.

Director Rene Seijben also emphasizes the link between mobility and structure. By 2013 the Aachen city region will have 569,000 inhabitants, Parkstad Limburg 241,000, and Maastricht 118,000; and, as a result of a direct Euroregional rail link, they will be connected. This highly potent, finely meshed local form of transport will encourage development, in his view, in the labor and housing market as well as business and tourist development. Having a stop at Avantis and at the Aachen station and the Campus will link the future high-tech center of the region, which will be one of the biggest employers. Avantis director Seijben forecasts around 7,000 jobs at the cross-border science and business park by 2021. In his view, the driving force will be the energy cluster with Solland Solar, the Solar Academy, the TSCC and Solaris.

Another area of investment will be health, with the first European cardiovascular center and particle therapy for new types of radiology in cancer treatment, with 600 patients per day. Cross-border mobility is the key to Avantis as the catalyst between the business park and Aachen’s top RWTH University.

Source: Meuse-Rhine Journal

Leave a reply

Name (required) Email (required, will not be published) Website