Tailored events
The Chamber of Commerce offers its members the opportunity to sponsor and co-organize events.
The goal is to provide member companies with the opportunity to use the Chamber—an independent platform—to promote their business, develop new clients, and increase their visibility.
What does the Chamber do?
Opportunity to share the event’s branding with the Chamber.
Inclusion of the sponsor’s logo on all event marketing materials distributed to attendees.
How to create your event?
Send an email to info@e-camara.com
Webinar: “Covid-19 response: examples of solutions in Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain”
Last Thursday 22nd of April, the Cultural and Scientific Department of the Spanish Embassy in Belgium and the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg, in collaboration with the Spanish Embassy in Luxembourg, the Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI), the Spanish Office for Science and Technology (SOST-CDTI) and the Superior Council for Scientific Research’ (CSIC) Delegation to the European Union, organized the webinar “Response to COVID-19: solutions’ examples in Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain”. It consisted in a digital, special edition of the “Los Mediodias de la Embajada” and the fourth edition of the cycle Spain Means Innovation, a Chamber’ initiative to boost Spanish companies’ commercial and business interests at a local level in Belgium and Luxembourg.
During the webinar, different good practice examples were shown on the development of innovative technologies and solutions which are being carried out in order to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg, and both synergies and connections that can be established between the three countries were highlighted.
Following him, Marina Martinez, H2020 Programme Officer at the CDTI-SOST office intervened and threshed the different innovation programs recently launched by the EU to fight the pandemic, as well as highlighting the important Spanish participation in the Horizon 2020 program in fields such as nanotechnology. After this, S.E. Sr. Bernardo de Sicart Escoda, Spanish Ambassador in the Great Duchy of Luxembourg, spoke and presented the important work of Spanish institutions and associations in Luxembourg to generate synergies between the two countries in all fields, including health.
After the firsts interventions the board of experts started, moderated by Sergi Farré, Cultural and Scientific Advisor of the Spanish Embassy in Belgium. Dr. Gérard Schockmel, specialist physician in infectious diseases at the Robert Schuman Luxembourg Hospital began by detailing the pandemic management in Luxembourg and current trends.
On the other hand, Adolfo Fernández, director, and Belén Cabal, main researcher, both of the center fo
r nanomaterials and nanotechnology research CINN-CSIC-UO-PA, presented the innovative materials recently developed and its potential applications against Covid. José Maria Lagarón, of the IATA-CSIC research center, presented the development of a mask based on own nanotechnology as an example of rapid development of solutions against Covid given the scarcity of masks in the initial stages of the pandemic. Last, David Gering, Director of Communications at the Belgian pharmaceutical industry association (Pharma.be) explained the enormous importance of Belgium in the industry’s European network as well as of its impact on the Belgian economy.
During the question time, assistants to the event had the chance to express their doubts and comments to the speakers, such as the measures launched in Luxembourg, vaccination strategies or crisis management.
From the Official Spanish Commerce Chamber in Belgium and Luxembourg we would like to warmly thank all speakers for their excellent presentation, as well as to all participants for their presence.
Webinar on “Pension & inheritance: 2 problems, 1 solution!”
On March 23rd, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg organised a webinar on “Pension & inheritance: 2 problems, 1 solution!” in collaboration with its member company Pareto. The conference was held by Gauthier Remaekers, Senior financial planner at Pareto.
Although inheritance & succession law are very complex and turn even more complicated when moving in transnational contexts, the reality is that the only way to protect familiar or personal wealth when facing retirement or inheritance is to draft a plan paying attention to different aspects. In this planification, the state pension after retirement should only cover around 30%
on the annual income after retirement and corresponds to the “first pillar” of the plan. The pension systems differ importantly between countries and has to be taken into account, for example, in Belgium there is “pay as you go” system. The different pillars corresponding to savings and/or pensions fund are also critical in the planification and taxation has to be always kept in mind under Belgian law as taxes are higher than in other countries.
Taxation is nevertheless present in all phases of any wealth planning activity and, of course, especially in inheritance matters. The taxes paid in the revenues, indirect taxes are followed by an inheritance taxation that varies between countries and even regions within countries, for example in Belgium. Therefore, planification of wealth for inheritance is critical to smartly minimize the impact of this taxations. The order of inheritance and the number of legal heirs were also featured in the webinar to explain the different schemes or formulas that an inheritance can take in real life. For this retirement planning, the figure of an adviser can make the difference and all experts agree on the fact that the plan should be built in an inverted pyramid scheme featuring the different components of wealth (savings, real state, etc.) according to the foreseen economical needs.
Participants were able to ask questions to the speaker during the Q&A session. Thus, topics such as retirement in cross-countries context and regional taxes disparities were discussed.
From the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce we thank Pareto and Gauthier Remaekers for their excellent presentation as well as to all attendees for their present.
In collaboration with:
Webinar on “Boost your business in the EU: internationalization and capacity building for SMEs”
On March 10th, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg and the Fundación Equipo Humano organized in the frame of the launch event of the MobiliseSME Programme, the webinar called “Boost your business in the EU: internationalization and capacity building for SMEs”.
The online event was welcomed by Juan Rodríguez-Villa Matons, President of the Chamber.
He expressed the aim of the association to continue supporting entrepreneurship and SMEs through EU initiatives such as the MobiliseSME programme, where the Chamber is the coordinator of the project, and to join forces to face the current challenges and those that are yet to come.
Crispin Waymouth, Deputy Head of Unit DG GROW, highlighted the three main objectives of the European Commission for SMEs: sustainability and the green economy, digitalization, and resilience. He mentioned Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) as a contact point for SMEs with experienced business consultants specialized in internationalization and presented the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs (EYE) as one of the European projects to foster international cooperation among European entrepreneurs. The Chamber is also taking part in this programme as intermediate organization for Belgium and Luxembourg.
During the panel discussion, Beatriz Rios, EU reporter, mediated the discussion and directed the attendees’ questions to the panelists.
Jose Enrique Val, EU Project Manager and co-cordinator of the MobiliseSME programme at Fundación Equipo Humano, talked about the objectives of this European programme, being the main one to promote SMEs internationalization and to boost their capacity building, staff skills and knowledge. Participating SMEs can enjoy multiple benefits, such as international expansion, creation of new products or services, market research and wide their networks abroad, between others.
Then, Noelia Sánchez, Project manager and coordinator of the MobiliseSME programme from the Chamber, explained the registration process for companies that want to participate in this pilot project, as well as the practical and financial support provided by the organizations that act as local contact points of the MobiliseSME programme.
Lastly, attendees could enjoy the testimonials of the two first SMEs that have participated in the MobiliseSME programme. Marta Templado, CEO of Turiart, and Claudio Cristofori, CEO of J&K Viaggi, explained how they found in the MobiliseSME programme the perfect opportunity to further expand their business while their companies in the tourism sector had been affected by the COVID-19 crisis.
During the Q&A session, assistants had the opportunity to ask further questions regarding the MobiliseSME programme, with topics such as the future and scope of the MobiliseSME project to help European SMEs with their main challenges and barriers, tackling the current COVID-19 situation.
After the webinar, a 1:1 meeting session took place for those participants interested in having tailored meetings with MobiliseSME local contact points to further information about the programme.
From the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg, we would like to thank Denis Genton, Crispin Waymouth, Marta Templado, Claudio Cristofori, Fundación Equipo Humano, and all the attendees for their participation.