10/30/2012 23:21–Luxembourg, a country about one-10th the size of Israel, is probably not one of the first European states in which Israeli companies would consider establishing a foothold.

The duchy’s government hopes that will eventually change, according to Partizia Luchetta, director of new technologies and life sciences in Luxembourg’s Ministry of Economy and Foreign Trade, and Itai Horstock, head of Luxembourg’s Trade and Investment Office in Israel. They sat down with The Jerusalem Post at this week’s Go4Europe conference in Tel Aviv.

Two and a half years ago, Luxembourg made a decision to include Israel as one of 15 non-EU countries in which to establish a strategic presence, Luchetta said. Most of the others on the list were larger economies such as the United States, China, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates and Taiwan.

Initially, Luxembourg identified Israel’s ICT (information and communications technology) sector as a potential area for cooperation, Luchetta said, but it has since broadened its search to include material sciences, biotechnology, environmental technologies such as photovoltaics and wind energy, and banking security.

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, as it is formally known, has long positioned itself as a hub through which companies can access Europe.

Thanks to its geographic location in between France, Germany and Belgium, the lowest VAT rate in the European Union (15 percent) and high English fluency, it has managed to encourage leading companies such as Amazon, eBay, Skype and PayPal to set up operations there…Read More>>

Share/Bookmark