Dear Reader and Friend of Luxembourg,
I hope you have been able to stay safe and healthy with your teams and your family. Now that the world starts to slowly reopen again and that encouraging news are coming from many countries in the fight against the Corona virus, it is time to start assessing the impact of the pandemic on your businesses and maybe readapt your business model for a post-pandemic era. An important part of ongoing reflections by businesses turn around determining your future target markets and – countries.
As a reaction to the COVID-pandemic and the unprecedented turmoil in the world economy and world trade, with production and consumption reduced worldwide, Luxembourg has reacted quickly with a number of measures to protect its economy while ensuring the safety and health of the population. The Luxembourg government announced on 25 March 2020 the launch of a massive stabilization programme for the national economy that was later described as one of the most generous out of 166 other countries’ schemes to protect companies and save employment.
Joining forces, the Ministry of the Economy and Luxinnovation, the national agency supporting companies to foster innovation, launched a call-for-projects named “StartupsVsCovid19”. The goal of this competition was to identify and support startups with the best innovative solutions to combat the health and economic crisis. Over 300 startups responded to this call-for-projects, 15 of which have been selected and will receive financial support granted by the Ministry of the Economy.
This initiative is a perfect illustration of the country’s commitment to support and promote innovation and the startup ecosystem, especially in this troubled times. The high participation number showed a mature and talented startup community developing remarkable innovations and new technologies.
One key element of our success so far has also been the digital readiness of the country that allowed most of the stakeholders to maintain business continuity during the world lockdown. This is thanks to Luxembourg’s implementing of its economic diversification strategy, with a key priority on building a strong Data Driven Economy. Thus, the country was digitally ready to confront the crisis when it hit the world, and enabled Luxembourg to steer through this challenging time demonstrating its adaptability and resilience.
The 2020 FM Global Resilience Index ranked Luxembourg as the 7th most resilient economy in the world which proves once again that the Grand Duchy is a strong and safe business location for foreign investors looking for an European Hub.
If you would like to learn more about Luxembourg, the ideal business hub in Europe, please feel free to contact our team by email: ltio.abudhabi@mae.etat.lu
Loïc Bertoli
Executive Director
Luxembourg Trade and Investment Office in Abu Dhabi