Wallonia wants to produce its own masks.

Since this call, telephone meetings have been taking place. With the support of Walloon financial tools – SRIW and Sogepa – a project is being studied with industrial players, including the biotech Univercells, specialized in vaccine production, and the group Deltrian, a specialist in filtration systems.

Aware of the role that entrepreneurs have to play in overcoming this crisis, Hugues Bultot, the director of Univercells, has set up a project in just a few days. “We have identified machines in China that we can quickly bring back. We can also develop a white zone quickly. We also know the specifics of textiles. We manipulate it to make bioreactors. We are clearly available to public authorities to help even though our specialty is in vaccines. We can find solutions together. We are ready to help set up such a project. The world will work tomorrow on a different paradigm with relocations. So we must work today on a long-term vision. I believe in this new paradigm. That’s why I’m involved in this project.”

Behind this mobilization, political decision-makers now intend to analyze the economic feasibility of such a project. “We must, in particular, question the sustainability of this line with an acceptable cost price outside the crisis period,” says SRIW. But, as Sylvie Ponchaut points out, “maybe we’ll have to accept the price of autonomy. We are currently talking about a shortage of masks in hospitals, in vaccine production companies, etc. If we group all this demand at the level of the same production line, there is probably a way to arrive at a viable project. Perhaps not at the same price as we paid the Chinese, but we will at least have a production capacity and autonomy.

In addition to the industrial track, Walloon officials have launched a parallel reflection on a mask decontamination sector. The Walloon government has brought together three industrial players (Lasea, Sterigenics and Ecosteryl) around three research centers (Materia Nova, Giga and Centexbel) and the University Hospital of Liège.