Flanders visits Luxembourg for closer economic ties

Flemish Prime Minister Jan Jambon is visiting space technology and fintech companies in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. A delegation of some 40 Flemisch entrepreneurs will be travelling with him to gain inspiration for innovation. The delegation includes entrepreneurs from Deloitte, Imec and the Port of Antwerp.

The purpose of the visit is to bring Flanders and Luxembourg closer together economically and to correct the image of the country as a fiscal paradise. That has not been the case for a long time, says former Luxembourg Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna.

In recent years, the Grand Duchy has been investing heavily in space technology and financial technology, or fintech. Fintech companies combine financial services and products with innovative technology. Think, for example, of the use of smartphones for mobile banking, investment services and crypto-currencies. Prime Minister Jambon visited the fintech hub Lhoft, the 'Luxembourg House of Financial Technology', on Monday.

Luxembourg is also firmly committed to space technology and, with Société Européenne des Satellites (SES), which Prime Minister Jambon will visit today, has the largest commercial satellite operator worldwide. It is also the first European country to introduce a law allowing companies to commercialise resources it operates in space. "Luxembourg wants to emerge as the European hotspot for the new space race," said former Economy Minister Etienne Schneider, who, like Gramegna, addressed the delegation at the Belgian embassy.

"We can't quite compare Luxembourg to Flanders, but there are definitely similarities," says Jambon's spokesman. "It is also not big, has an open economy, is centrally located in Europe and, like Flanders, has to rely on innovation. There is an enterprise-friendly climate." The intention is therefore for the entrepreneurs to gain inspiration and ideas from our southern neighbours.

© BELGA PHOTO Belgian ambassador to Luxembourg Thomas Lambert, Flemish Minister President Jan Jambon and Carlo Thelen, CEO of the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, pictured during a meeting at the Chamber of Commerce in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.