Kick-off meeting of the financial Commission of the Chamber in Luxembourg

Last 6th June, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg organized the kick-off meeting of the Financial Commission in the offices of EY in Luxembourg.

Twenty partner companies from the Chamber participated in the meeting with activity related to the financial sector.

With this working group, the Chamber aims to create a space for opinion and debate on economic and financial issues where professionals working in companies related to the provision of financial services, can share experiences, establish collaborations and exchange information about the sector trends.

During the meeting, the objectives of the Commission were discussed, as well as the internal functioning and the proposal of events.

In the coming weeks, the Chamber will present a project of activities and the Commission’s strategy in the medium term.

The Chamber launches a new newsletter focused on the Luxembourg market

The Chamber has decided to launch a new newsletter focused exclusively on the Luxembourg market.

Until now, the Chamber has prepared a joint newsletter for Belgium and Luxembourg twice monthly.

The objectives that we pursue with this new publication are:

  • Transferring news and more detailed information on business opportunities and economic relations between Spain and Luxembourg to our members and contacts in Luxembourg.
  • Positioning the newsletter of the Delegation of Luxembourg as a business networking tool better oriented to our subscribers in the Grand Duchy.

The newsletter will be sent twice a month in two versions (Spanish and English), and will include the following sections:

  • News & Events:
    • of the Chamber in Luxembourg.
    • of our members in Luxembourg.
    • of Luxembourgish collaborators and institutions.
  • Spain in Luxembourg
  • Get to know our members. A space dedicated to make the activity of our members in Luxembourg known through interviews.
  • Programs: Emprendebelux, Empleobelux, etc
  • Cultural collaborations in Luxembourg.

If you wish to start receiving the newsletter of the Delegation of Luxembourg, send an email to luxemburgo@e-camara.com

 

The Chamber, new member of the Paperjam Club

The Chamber has formalized its subscription to Paperjam Club, Luxembourg’s largest business club. With more than 1,000 corporate members, Paperjam Club organizes annually more than 250 events and activities focused on the promotion of networking and on business creation among its members.

With this subscription, the Chamber aims to expand its network of contacts in the Grand Duchy and facilitate the access and visibility of the Chamber’s members before a wider professional audience through the activities organized by the Club.

The Chamber collaborates with the Cercle Antonio Machado to organize the 20th Spanish Film Festival in Luxembourg

This year, the Chamber is part of the entities and companies collaborating with the Spanish Film Festival in Luxembourg. In the twentieth edition of this initiative led by the Spanish Cultural Circle Antonio Machado, ten cinema sessions will be organized between March 20 and April 11 at Cine Utopia, Cinemateca and Kulturfabrik (Esch-sur-Alzette).

The Spanish Embassy in Luxembourg and the following companies: Transportes Fernandez, Hotel Meliá, Senda Consulting, Leiw Investments, El Rubio, BIT Valley and Dlinea, are also collaborating to organize this festival, which enables to bring the best of the Spanish seventh art to the Luxembourg public.

The Spanish Ambassador in Luxembourg, Bernardo de Sicart, inaugurated the Spanish Film Festival during the session of March 20, in which the short films “17 años juntos” and “Campeones”, both directed by Javier Fesser, were screened.

More information about the program here.

 

With the sponsorship of the Spanish Embassy

And the collaboration of:

21-22/05 B2fair @ ICT Spring Europe

We have the pleasure to inform you that the Enterprise Europe Network-Luxembourg of the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce will organise the 4th edition of the international b2fair Matchmaking Event @ ICT Spring Europe on 21st & 22nd May 2019 in collaboration with Farvest at the European Convention Center. Since 2016, the b2fair Matchmaking Event at ICT Spring has brought together 600 participants from 25 countries and organised close to 2000 business meetings.

As an influential voice in the worldwide Tech community, the aim of ICT Spring is to encourage emulation and networking between business decisions makers, innovation managers, start-ups, researchers and venture capitalists on a European scale. It is a yearly event held in the modern premises of the European Convention Center in Luxembourg City which will highlight the latest technology trends and IT innovations as well as discuss their impact on the society and the business community. ICT Spring represents an exciting array of fantastic opportunities with the participation of key decision makers coming from 72 countries including leaders, innovators, investors, entrepreneurs, start-ups etc. For more information on ICT Spring, visit the official website: www.ictspring.com.

The 2019’s edition will feature 4 main topics:

  • FINTECH
  • DIGITAL
  • SPACE
  • ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The ICT Spring will also house the PITCH YOUR START-UP, an international pitch-based competition that aims to attract the best and brightest startups from around the world. Hundreds of startups apply each year to compete for PYSU’s €100,000 in prize money.

b2fair ICT Spring 2019:                                 

  • two days of intense business meetings
  • an opportunity to build strong relationships and partnerships in the ICT sector
  • an excellent networking opportunity for digital leaders, innovation managers, researchers, start-ups etc.
  • a possibility to find your right business partner in one single meeting place
  • company visits

Participation Conditions:

  • Exhibitors: Free of charge
  • Early Bird until 1st April: EUR 100 / company. EUR 50 per additional participant
  • After 1st April: 150.00 € / company. EUR 75.00 € per additional participant.

The entrance to the ICT Spring for foreign companies is included in the participation fee.

More information:  luxemburgo@e-camara.com

31/01 New Year’s Cocktail in Luxembourg

On the 31st January, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg celebrated the New Year’s Cocktail in Luxembourg. The event counted mainly with the presence of numerous members, representatives of European institutions and contacts of other bilateral Chambers in the Grand Duchy.

José Luis Rodríguez Álvarez, Vicepresident of the Chamber, thanked the attendees for their participation and listed the upcoming events and activities scheduled for 2019. During his speech, he highlighted two new initiatives of the Chamber, the programs EmprendeBelux and Spain Means Innovation.

The event took place at the Meliá hotel and it was attended by more than 50 attendees.

The Chamber appreciates the collaboration of Bodega SalfersoWine in the organization of the event.

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“Fiesta española” in Luxembourg

Annually, the FAEL (Federation of Spanish Associations in Luxembourg) organizes the Fiesta española, an activity aimed at the Spanish-speaking public resident in Luxembourg and with an extensive program of cultural and gastronomic activities.

This year the Fiesta española will take place on Sunday, January 20, 2019 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Center Culturel de Hollerich (36, rue Emile Lavandier), and has the support of the Embassy of Spain in Luxembourg.

In this edition, the Chamber and the FAEL are coordinating the organization of a stand that aims to promote Spanish companies and professionals who provide their services in Luxembourg. The environment of this event, which last year brought together more than 500 participants, is an excellent opportunity to promote the activity of Spanish professionals among the Hispanic public residing in Luxembourg.

The idea is that each professional or company interested in participating, can have a shared space in this stand to distribute information about their activity. To cover the expenses of organizing the stand, a symbolic cost of 10 euros will be applied to each participant.

If you are interested in participating, please fill in the form that you will find on the following website: https://spain-lux-business.com/ or send an email to: info@spain-lux-business.com

Meeting of the Board of Directors

On December 17, the Board of Directors of the Chamber met at the Cercle Munster in Luxembourg.

The meeting was attended by the Ambassador of Spain in Luxembourg, Bernardo de Sicart Escoda, and the Economic and Commercial Counselor, Maria Palanca Reh.

During the meeting the program of activities planned in Luxembourg for the year 2019 was discussed and the corresponding budget was presented.

 

Luncheon-debate with Emma Navarro, Vice President of the European Investment Bank

On 17 December, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg organized in Luxembourg a luncheon-debate with Emma Navarro, Vice-President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), under the title of ‘’The role of the EIB facing European challenges’’. The event included the participation of different Spanish company executives and various representatives of public bodies, both Spanish and European. It was the President of the Chamber, Juan Rodríguez Villa-Matons, who introduced Emma Navarro reviewing her relevant professional career and expressing his acknowledgment for her collaboration with the Chamber in the participation of this event.

EIB Vice-President began with a brief presentation of the institution, emphasizing its historical occupation on financing infrastructures and encouraging innovation and competitiveness in Europe, introducing new channels that the Bank is already attending in today’s context. Emma Navarro appeared optimistic, describing a favorable cyclical and conjunctural situation, to then emphasize the political, economic and structural challenges that Europe faces.

Among the challenges, Emma Navarro distinguished the political from the structural ones. Regarding the political scene, she highlighted the growing protectionist tendency in Europe and the Brexit, involving this one a need for Bank funds capital replacement. She also brought to light the escalation of populism as a response to multilateral processes. In relation to structural challenges, the speaker remarked the aging of population, the public debt, the increasingly low productivity and the climate change.

The luncheon-debate continued with the analysis of the structural challenges. Encouraging public debt reduction is an inexorable priority for the EIB regarding both the UE restraints as an international organization such as the lack of scope for fiscal action but also the exchange rate policies implementation. Low productivity is another of the main challenges, although this represents a key opportunity for the EIB to foster investment in infrastructure, digitalization and competitiveness. The convenience of attending to an increase in productivity is double if we consider that in this year only a 75% of the budget prior to the financial crisis has been allocated to this item. The fight against climate change is the last challenge analyzed by Emma Navarro. Currently, the EIB allocates more than 25% of their investments to projects fighting the effect of climate change and has the forecast of reaching 100,000 million dollars in between 2016 and 2020. So much so that the EIB is claimed as the main issuer of green bonds, representing 5% of the total.

The intervention of Emma Navarro ended with a special mention of SMEs, for which the EIB acts as a fundamental actor in terms of financing in addition to other major projects such as Madrid Underground. Following the presentation, there was a round of questions among the attendees.

Héctor Esteban Moreno, CEO of Bankinter Luxembourg, closed the event by highlighting the bank’s special relationship within the industrial sector since its foundation, in 1965. Bankinter is claimed to be the sixth Spanish bank in terms of assets, and the first in profitability. He confesses to be at ease with the guidelines presented by Emma Navarro, not only because about a 30% of their income comes from SMEs but also because Bankinter shares multiple collaboration agreements with the EIB in terms of finance investment and innovation.

The Chamber thanks Bankinter Luxembourg for its collaboration in the organization of the event, and the Bodega Salferso Wine for sponsorship of the wines.

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LËTZBIZ INTERNATIONAL: The journeys of international trade

On December 11 and 12,  theChamber of Commerce of Luxembourg and the Europe-Luxembourg Business Network organized the event “LëtzBiz International: the days of international trade“, an international forum with round tables, thematic workshops, exhibitions, pitches and meetings b2fair business organized in collaboration with the bilateral Chambers of Commerce and business clubs in Luxembourg. The conference was attended by the Director General of the Chamber of Commerce of Luxembourg, Carlo Thelen.

The Secretary General of the Chamber, María Catalán, participated in these conferences thanks to the bilateral Chambers of Commerce in Luxembourg, in which experiences and activities were exchanged, in the organization of events and joint activities. Also, the representatives of the bilateral Chambers had the opportunity to meet with numerous local companies and participate in a round table on “Globalization: current and international trade trends“.