International affairs
On Wednesday 22nd of March, a Portuguese delegation active in textiles, clothing and footwear visited the Chamber of Commerce. This visit was organised in the framework of a business mission to the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), lead by the General Directorate for National Defence Resources of the Ministry of Defence of Portugal. It gathered 25 participants.
The NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) is the executive body of the NATO Support and Procurement Organisation (NSPO), of which all 28 NATO nations are members. Currently, the Agency employs some 1,100 staff and is headquartered in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, with operational centres in Luxembourg, France, Hungary and Italy. The NSPA brings together in a single organisation NATO’s logistics and procurement support activities. In the context of the public procurements of NATO, dedicated textiles, clothing and footwear for the armed forces and industry are sometimes needed.
The Portuguese Ministry of Defence has selected 9 companies that are better prepared to do business with NSPA and possess a comprehensive knowledge of how to do business with NSPA and has invited those companies to participate in a business mission to Luxembourg, in order to present them the LB Program opportunities (LB program is NSPA's program where more business opportunities have been identified for the Portuguese companies, namely textiles, clothing and footwear, medical equipment and materiel, and recycle/circular economy), giving them the possibility to interact with specific technical questions they may have, namely regarding the Agency’s procurement rules, and look for future business opportunities.
Since those companies are SMEs, flexible, dual use oriented - meaning their products can be used for both civil and military aims - and able to provide turn-key service, the Portuguese Ministry of Defence has contacted the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce in order to ask it to introduce them to the Luxembourg Economy, as well as Luxembourg textiles, clothing and footwear market with the objective of giving them awareness of the opportunities of the Luxembourg market in general.
The Portuguese companies that attended the business mission are:
1. Estamparia Têxtil Adalberto Pinto da Silva S.A
2. IMPETUS PORTUGAL - TEXTEIS SA
3. LATINO GROUP
6. LMA S.A. - Leandro Manuel Araújo S.A.
7. AMF LDA
8. EuroSafe - Importação & Exportação de Equipamentos de Segurança, Lda
During their visit at the Chamber of Commerce, the delegation was welcomed by Violaine Mathurin, Advisor at International Affairs of the Chamber of Commerce, in charge of the relations with Portugal. In her speech, Violaine Mathurin presented the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce and the Luxembourg economy in a nutshell. If we consider the size of the population and the territory, Luxembourg is quite small with 576,200 inhabitants for the whole country, while the city of Lisbon counts 530.847 inhabitants, without taking into account the metropolitan area. But Luxembourg has a big economy, and is ranked 48th out of 225 countries for its GDP growth, which is expected to level 4% for the 4th consecutive year in 2017. Besides its financial centre, which is indeed very important and where the Grand Duchy has always been a first mover from the outset, Luxembourg has many other strengths in the field of ICT, Logistics, Automotive, Space, circular economy, fintech to name only a few. The short movie presenting surprising facts about Luxembourg: A little piece of Luxembourg everywhere has also been showed.
Following her speech, Francis Da Silva, President of the Câmara de Comércio e Indústria Luso-Luxemburguesa presented more into detail the bilateral relations between Portugal and Luxembourg. On the one hand, according to official Luxembourg statistics, in 2016 Portugal was Luxembourg’s 28th most important EU partner for exports of goods and 19th for imports of goods. Total trade in goods between our two economies amounted to 100,813 million € in 2016 (48,752 million exports and 52,061 imports).
On the other hand, according to Bank of Portugal, Luxembourg is the 17th customer and the 22nd supplier of Portugal. It should be noted that over the period 2012-2016, the average annual growth of exports and imports (goods and services) was 18% per year for Portugal's exports and 21% per year for Luxembourg's exports. In cumulative terms, the sales of Portuguese goods and services amounted in 2016 to € 567 million (compared to € 289 million in 2012) and imports from Luxembourg € 422 million (compared to € 201 million in 2012).
Looking more closely to figures, the presentation was then divided into three parts: exchange of goods, services and investments.
Francis Da Silva underlined that it is well-known that Luxembourg welcomes a large Portuguese community. He also reminded that Luxembourg is a global hub for many Portuguese companies active in international trade. In the recent years, numerous events related to Portugal were organised, proving that a strong partnership already exists between both countries.
To give a practical insight on how it is to do business in Luxembourg for a Portuguese company, two testimonials completed the presentations: Jean-Paul Dias, Associate at Seaside Luxembourg explained about the footwear market in Luxembourg and how Seaside opened three shops in the Grand Duchy, and Antonio Gandra, Chairman of Bicafé, gave his view about the main differences between Luxembourg and Portugal and the advantages of doing business with Luxembourg. Four Luxembourg companies who were interested in meeting the Portuguese companies also attended the event: Action Wear; R-PAC, Yileste and BCP Bank Luxembourg.
Finally, Colonel Fernando Pedro Araújo de Albuquerque, Portuguese Liaison Officer to the NSPA concluded the event emphasising the crucial role that the General Directorate for National Defence Resources of the Portuguese Ministry of Defence has been having in fostering the internationalisation of the Portuguese Defence Technological and Industrial Base. He also thanked the Chamber of Commerce for the organisation of this event. The delegation continued its trip to Luxembourg by visiting NSPA premises on Thursday.
The next event in collaboration with the Portuguese Ministry of Defence and NSPA will take place in September and will be related to medical equipment and materiel.
For further information about the activities of the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce with Portugal, please feel free to contact : Violaine Mathurin - violaine.mathurin@cc.lu – T : (+352) 42 39 39 – 481).
A little piece of Luxembourg everywhere from Luxembourg For Finance on Vimeo.