ICT
After 2 successful editions of its international b2fair Matchmaking Event at ICT Spring, the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce was back at ICT Spring 2018 with a more reinforced presence this year: a stand of the “Group Chamber of Commerce” to present its specialised services to the large International audience. Keeping in spirit the digitalisation drive of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the Chamber of Commerce presented this year the innovative services of its three branches, namely the House of Entrepreneurship, the House of Startups and the House of Training.
“Sustainable growth and productivity gains in the medium and long term cannot be achieved without a digital underpinning or digitalisation. ICT represents 10% of the overall production of the Luxembourg economy, 7% of added value and 4% of total employment and over the next years, there’s going to be uncountable business opportunities for small, medium, large companies.” underlines Carlo Thelen, Director General of the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce during his address at the Fintech Summit of ICT Spring. Being a key economic actor of the Luxembourg economy, the Chamber of Commerce aims to facilitate further development of a digital eco-system in Luxembourg. Events like ICT Spring promote the digitalisation of companies by showcasing the latest trends and success stories in this domain.
Given the contribution of digitalisation and its role to improve productivity of SMEs, Luxembourg is one of the first nations to adopt the model of the Third Industrial Revolution, developed by the American prospective economist Jeremy Rifkin. This project aims at defining a new economic model for Luxembourg through the convergence of latest communication technologies, energy source and transportation on a smart IoT platform. As an important partner and one of the three initiators of the Third Industrial Revolution project, the Chamber of Commerce considers itself as a privileged partner for innovative start-ups and SMEs in order to support young companies through their digialisation journey. In this framework, the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce also participated actively in round table “Digitalisation- enabling societal progress” taking place at ICT Sping in presence of Mr Marc Wagener, Director of Economic Affairs at the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, and Fateh Amroune, Director & Founder of Kemada SAS. Both experts shared their views and ideas about the benefits for “digital consumers”, the impact of digitalisation on both education and labour markets in general but also more specifically in Luxembourg.
With the aim to raise awareness on the importance of digitalisation and the opportunities that it brings for small companies, the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce presented its “Go Digital” initiative of its House of Entrepreneurship, aiming at raising small and very small companies’ awareness of the challenges and opportunities of digitalisation. Furthermore, given the vast international audience present at the trade fair, the House of Entrepreneurship also presented its services which help companies willing to do business or establish an entity in Luxembourg or, via its Investor Care Platform, to invest in the Grand Duchy.
Besides the House of Entrepreneurship, the House of Startups was highly solicited on the stand of the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce. The role and services of this newest initiative of the Chamber is to gather innovation hubs, incubators, business accelerators, and startup consulting services under one roof. With a space reaching close to 6,000 sqms aiming to host some 150 to 200 innovative start-up companies through very modern working spaces, the House of Startups encourages, this, budding companies to innovate through a convivial work atmosphere and to give them the opportunity to work together.
Furthermore, given the importance of diversifying and acquiring new skills, the House of Training, reaching on an average some 180 people trained on a daily basis, presented its vast training offer.
With Fintech being an important pillar of the ICT Spring, the Chamber of Commerce, in close collaboration with LHoFT, the Luxembourg House of Fintech, organised this year the 1st edition of the b2fair Fintech Business Meetings at ICT Spring. The development of Innovative technologies playing an important role in the evolution of financial services, the b2fair Fintech matchmaking programme aimed at facilitating partnerships and innovation which is primordial for the sector.
Finally, the Chamber of Commerce closed its presence at ICT Spring with the 3rd edition of its successful b2fair matchmaking event with a whopping 972 meetings recorded, the number of meetings having doubled since the last edition. Over 220 companies with 270 participants coming from 25 countries participated in this international business exchange platform. The aim of this initiative at ICT Spring was to help Luxembourg companies “GO INTERNATIONAL” through targeted face-to-face meetings planned in advance.
According to the first feedbacks received on the spot, many meetings are very promising to transform into successful business cooperations. “I am delighted to see the progress of the b2fair platform at ICT Spring since 2016 with the increasing interest of companies and countries every year. I was happy to see the participation of numerous foreign business delegations including participants from France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Korea, Malta, Poland and more...” continues Carlo Thelen. With ICT Spring being one of the most important ICT events in the region, the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce will provide its continued support with an aim to promote this event amongst its network of partners all across the world in order to attract more delegations to this reference event in the future.
