Bettel meets Trudeau for start of official Canada visit

Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel was received by his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau as part of an official visit to the country accompanied by Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna.

The first day of Bettel’s visit to Canada was marked by a meeting with Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

Bilateral relations and international politics were the aims of the meeting, where both leaders agreed to “strengthen trade ties” between the two nations, as well as explore different ways to leverage the areas of innovation and technology to “create jobs in both the countries”.

According to Bettel, Luxembourg’s cumulative direct investment in Canada was around 43 billion euros in 2015, making Luxembourg the third largest source of foreign direct investment in Canada.

On the other side of the coin, Canadian investment in Luxembourg reached 35 billion euros in 2015, making it the fourth largest Canadian direct investment abroad.

“With Mr. Trudeau, we have not only agreed to deepen political relations, but also economic relations, in particular by taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the Canada-European Union Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the two countries, and help achieve a balance between economic and political players in order to put the global economy on a more sustainable and social basis”, Xavier Bettel said in a statement.

Two intense days

Also on Wednesday, the Luxembourg prime minister met with Canada’s Governor-General, David Johnston, with relations between Canada and Luxembourg dominating the session.

On the sidelines of the visit, Guy Daleiden, director of the National Fund to Support Audiovisual Production, and Olivier Nicoloff, Canadian Ambassador to the Grand Duchy, signed a new treaty for audiovisual co-production between the two countries in the presence of Bettel.

This agreement aims to encourage the development of film, television and video co-productions between the two countries, which agrees to support the costs of films with “15% of the total production budget”. The works will be awarded both Luxembourg and Canadian ‘nationalities’.

The visit of Xavier Bettel and Pierre Gramegna to Canada ends on Thursday with the Luxembourg delegation meeting in Toronto with Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau and other local officials and economic figures.