Luxembourg has well-established business ties with the United Arab Emirates, and works in particular to pave the way for Emirati companies interested in opening European offices or HQs in Luxembourg and for Luxembourg companies interested in expanding their business activities to the UAE.
“Both countries are regional hubs where companies, investors and entrepreneurs come to tap into not only the local, but also the regional market. Luxembourg is an excellent base for the EU market, and the UAE for the Gulf region, Africa and parts of Central Asia,” says Sabrina Amiar, Senior Commercial & Economic Advisor at the Luxembourg Trade and Investment Office (LTIO) in Abu Dhabi, who coordinated the recent visit to Dubai. The visit was organised to follow up on a well-attended ICT trade mission organised by the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce and the Ministry of the Economy in the context of the Expo 2020 Dubai.
Technology hotspots
During the visit, representatives from the Luxembourg embassy in the UAE, the LTIOs and national innovation agency Luxinnovation visited GITEX GLOBAL, a yearly international meeting place for technology-based industries. “With its 200,000 m2 and 150,000 visitors, GITEX is one of the largest tech events in the world,” says David Foy, Head of International Business Development – Digital Economy at Luxinnovation. “It provides excellent opportunities to meet with big global players and disruptive newcomers. This year, I had the opportunity to join a panel on smart and sustainable cities, where I was able to highlight some ambitious projects promoting sustainability and give country insights from the recent State of the Nation speech of our Prime Minister Xavier Bettel to the participants.”
We had a number of good meetings with innovators from the Gulf who showed interest in expanding to Luxembourg as a gateway to Europe.
Jean-Marie Frentz, Director of LTIO Abu Dhabi, was very pleased to see quite a few companies from Luxembourg made their way to Dubai to present their solutions at the cutting edge of technological innovation. Four Luxembourg-based companies, EmailTree, BlockGemini, Oxyliom Solutions and Talkwalker, were present at GITEX with their own booths. Their participation generated much local interest and business leads.
The Luxembourg delegation also visited Dubai Internet City, a vast tech free zone, sustainability and cleantech start-up accelerator Catalyst and Masdar City Free Zone in order to discuss cooperation opportunities in fields such as smart technologies, sustainability and start-up acceleration. “We had a number of good meetings with innovators from the Gulf who showed interest in expanding to Luxembourg as a gateway to Europe,” says Mr Frentz.
Dubai Future Foundation partnership
In 2020, Luxinnovation signed a cooperation agreement with the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF), the governmental innovation agency in Dubai that provides support to technological transformation. The agreement makes it possible for Luxembourg technology-based start-ups and established companies to get access to development and financing programmes in Dubai as well as to various premises belonging to DFF. The Luxembourg representatives benefited from their time in the UAE to meet up with DFF. “We notably discussed how we can work together to provide insights and research capacity for start-ups and companies wishing to bridge the two countries,” comments Mr Foy.
We discussed how we can work together to provide insights and research capacity for start-ups and companies wishing to bridge the two countries.
DFF had also issued a special invitation to the Luxembourg delegation to visit its Dubai Future Forum and count amongst the 400 futurists discussing the issues of tomorrow. “Foresight has never been more important as there is a great need to manage uncertainty simultaneously in both the short and the long term,” Mr Frentz points out. “We hope to be able to include a Luxembourg contribution in next year’s edition of the Future Forum.”