Luxembourg has unveiled a new strategy on Tuesday to promote economic growth, focusing on attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) and supporting companies moving into other markets.

The ‘Luxembourg: Let’s Make It Happen’ proposal – the brainchild of the Trade and Investment Board – focuses on five key objectives.

Improving Luxembourg-based companies’ access to international markets
Attracting FDI in a “targeted, service-orientated” way
Strengthening the country’s international “economic-promotion network”
Improving Luxembourg’s image as a “smart location” for high-performance business and industry
Ensuring the coherence of economic promotion efforts

The Trade and Investment Board includes representatives from the Ministries of the Economy, Higher Education and Research, Finance, Foreign and European Affairs and State.

Luxinnovation, FEDIL, the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Skilled Trades and Crafts are also represented on the board.

The board members said they wanted to “leverage our role as an international and European crossroads, where we bring people together and add value in an effective manner”.
“Easy access to decision-makers”

“We want to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit and develop long-term and ambitious success stories, which sometimes involves taking calculated risks.”

The plan pledges to support companies entering foreign markets, particularly those in high-growth emerging markets.

It also aims to support SMEs expanding into neighbouring regions and more “traditional” markets, as well as those companies seeking to expand into “niche” markets.

The board hopes to win over foreign investors with Luxembourg’s unique “easy access to decision-makers” and its ability to “act swiftly”.

It also plans to enlist the support of its embassies, trade and investment offices, economic and commercial attaches, honorary consuls and foreign trade advisers in its efforts to attract FDI.

The plan will take a “results-orientated, cost/benefit approach”, with performance being evaluated on cost and “effort put in”.

The board said measurement concepts and indicators would be fleshed out later this year.