Alibaba's push into Europe a mixed blessing for Liège

Fascinating long read from The Guardian on the under-construction logistics hub at Belgium’s Liege Airport for Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. There are a number of moving parts to the story: historically a steel production city, Liege area needs investment to regenerate its economy; meanwhile Alibaba needs a bridgehead in Europe to step up its battle against Amazon; and local politics play a part too, with concerns over noise and pollution as well as the longer-term future logistics in the region. “We cannot build, in the long term, the development of a region on an economic sector as little anchored locally, as easily delocalised, as international logistics,” said one Walloon lobby group.