Foreign trade
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The Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce and national innovation agency Luxinnovation today signed memorandums of cooperation with JETRO, the Japan External Trade Organisation, aimed at establishing a cooperative framework for facilitating cross-border business and investment opportunities. The signature took place in the presence of Luxembourg Minister of the Economy Franz Fayot and Japan’s ambassador to Luxembourg, Jiro Okuyama.
The Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce and Luxinnovation join forces with JETRO, an agency in close cooperation with the Japanese Ministry of the Economy, Trade and Industry, in order to enhance business and investment opportunities for Japanese companies in Luxembourg and for Luxembourg companies in Japan.
With its dynamic economic ecosystem – particularly renowned in Japan for its financial/fintech sector, but increasingly also for its strengths in fields such as ICT, cybersecurity and space – and business-friendly investment climate, Luxembourg is an attractive location in Europe for Japanese companies. Japan also offers a range of business opportunities to Luxembourg companies, not least as the country seeks to overcome challenges such as an aging population, labour shortages, the economic disparity between metropolitan and regional areas, etc. through digital transformation and innovation that can be triggered by foreign companies.
JETRO therefore signed two memorandums of cooperation (MoCs) with the Chamber of Commerce and Luxinnovation, respectively. The MoCs provide a framework for information exchange, the co-organisation of events, joint support to companies in both countries, and cooperation in public relations and cross-border activities. They also cover cross-border open innovation between Japanese and Luxembourg companies, which will contribute to strengthen competitiveness and provide social and industrial impact to both countries. Several collaborative events such as business webinars are already planned for the coming months.
The MoC signed by Takuya Yamazaki, Director General of JETRO Brussels, and Carlo Thelen, Director General of the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, focuses on support to Luxembourg companies looking to export and/or expand to the Japanese market. The MoC signed by Mr Yamazaki and Sasha Baillie, CEO of Luxinnovation, targets support to Japanese companies wishing to enter the European market through Luxembourg and/or open offices here.
“Relations between Japan and Luxembourg have always been excellent. They are marked by mutual recognition, shared values and common interests. The State Visit in 2017 was an important milestone in our relations and the Expo OSAKA 2025 will be the next important one. In the meantime, we want to further strengthen our bilateral economic exchanges and the two MoCs that are signed today will certainly help to increase our trade and investment activities. I want to congratulate JETRO, the Chamber of Commerce and Luxinnovation and I hope that many collaborations will emerge from this. More than ever, it important for Luxembourg to join forces with like-minded partner countries like Japan to address the challenges of today and find together innovative solutions to climate change, energy crisis, etc.,” stated Luxembourg Minister of the Economy Franz Fayot.
“It is a great pleasure to sign these memorandums of cooperation with Luxinnovation and the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, the two distinguished and prestigious institutions for business facilitation and acceleration. Luxembourg’s industrial ecosystems have a reputation for being at the forefront of Europe’s innovation. I am confident that these MoCs will contribute to further accelerate the collaboration or innovation between Luxembourg and Japanese businesses and I look forward to seeing trade and investment between our two countries grow strongly,” stated Mr Yamazaki.
“The signing of this memorandum of cooperation lays a solid foundation for further deepening the excellent economic relations between our two countries and will help to intensify the long tradition of mutually beneficial collaboration that Luxembourg has maintained with Japanese companies for decades. I am very pleased that this new bilateral agreement will also create new opportunities for Luxembourg companies wishing to expand their business relations with Japan. Luxembourg companies have a lot to offer in a wide range of cutting-edge fields,” said Mr Thelen.
“It is a great honour for Luxinnovation to sign this memorandum of cooperation with JETRO and contribute to enhancing the already strong business ties between our two countries even further. With its open economy, central European location in close proximity to two of the largest EU markets, France and Germany, and the most international population in the EU, Luxembourg has much to offer Japanese companies and we hope that it will become the natural choice for them when they wish to expand to Europe. The Luxinnovation team is fully committed to doing everything we can to support innovative Japanese companies that show an interest in coming here and fit with the Luxembourg ecosystem,” said Ms Baillie.