Business Facilities - February 2009 - (Page 25)

INTERNATIONAL PROFILE Luxembourg By JP Trivella The World’s Most Deluxe Duchy Luxembourg is at Western Europe’s geographic core and has long been a major player in the surrounding market. L uxembourg, Europe’s landlocked fist of fortune, is small in size but large in value. While its borders extend a mere 1,000 square miles, the wealthy duchy of half a million people boasts the world’s second highest GDP per capita, according to a 2007 estimate by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. A Benelux trade member (along with Belgium and the Netherlands) and a founding member of the European Union and NATO, Luxembourg offers an open market, high-income economy with a history of entrepreneurial success. Although finance and related business services account for an important share of Luxembourg’s wealth creation, there is substantial depth and variety in the economy. The Grand Duchy’s steel industry is now one of the most sophisticated on the planet, and home to the headquarters of one of the world’s prominent steel companies, ArcelorMittal. Twenty-five years ago, Luxembourg was quick to grasp the potential of satellite communications, spawning the company that became SES, which has its global headquarters and European satellite operations in the duchy. More recently, Skype used Luxembourg as a base for its revolutionary web telephony service that has taken the world by storm. Add a competitive and varied automotive sector into the mix, and Luxembourg’s economic output dwarfs those of much larger nations. “Two of Luxembourg’s big advantages are linked,” says Luxembourg Minister of the Economy and Foreign Trade Jeannot Krecké. A central location at the heart of northwestern Europe encourages multilingualism, with English, French and German being widely spoken. Many other nationalities also are present, with the population expanding by nearly 1% per annum, resulting in more than 42% of the population being of foreign origin. This enables businesses to hire staff that can talk to partners and clients in their mother tongues. “The central location is important in terms of market access too,” remarks Minister Krecké, “with about half of the old EU15’s GDP lying in a banana shape stretching from the southern UK, through the Benelux, Germany and France to Northern Italy and Spain.” Immigrants to Luxembourg tend to have either very high or quite low levels of educational achievement, depending on the type of work they are seeking. They also are attracted by the high quality of life, as the country is easy to get around in and largely rural while also providing excellent cultural opportunities. As well as the resident workforce, Luxembourg attracts commuters from neighboring countries. Around 150,000 nonresidents, usually with an above-average educational profile, go to the Grand Duchy to work each day, representing 44% of the total workforce. In regards to transportation infrastructure, Luxembourg has a thriving airport with a brand new terminal. A high-speed train takes just more than two hours to reach Paris, and the country is at the intersection of major motorway links. The political climate is very stable, BUSINESS FACILITIES 25 IMAGE: FOCUS ON INNOVATION AND RESEARCH IN LUXEMBOURG, 2008

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Business Facilities - February 2009 Contents First Word Snapshots Corporate Moves: Ohio Governor's Report Growth Magnets Industry Focus: Automotive International Report: Luxembourg Corporate Moves: Tennessee Cream of the Crop in North Carolina Advertiser Index Ask the Expert

Business Facilities - February 2009

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