On Tuesday Luxembourg's largest ICT conference and exhibition opened at the European Conference Centre in Luxembourg-Kirchberg.
The 2-day annual event comprises four separate conference components this year: FinTech Summit, Space Forum, Digital Summit and Tech Summit, as well as a number of side events including the European ICT Awards and the Docler Holding-sponsored Innovation Contest. This year, over 5,250 people have registered to attend the 2-day event, a 5% increase on the 2016 event.
On Tuesday morning, Luxembourg's Prime Minister, Xavier Bettel, addressed the conference and talked about the challenges he faces as Prime Minister if the country.
He talked about technology and the speed of adoption, including Artificial Intelligence. He asked should we get a clearer impact of the opportunity that technology brings, or fight it.
He talked about education as technology will be everywhere in the future; we will need to teach basic coding skills as well as social skills and out-of-the-box problem-solving skills, ensuring being open to new skills and experiences. He referenced the Ministry of Education retraining the unemployed in digital skills.
He referred to the 150th anniversary of the Treaty of London and the openess of the country which involves respect for others. "This openness is a strength that we want".
He mentioned both trust and regualtion, where trust from consumers is needed to implement new regulation. Together with the private section he mentioned that the government is to launch a National Digital Skills Coalition on 29 May.
He talked about Digital Letzbuerg and policy-making in relation to the digital agenda.
He stated "my country is much bigger in space than on earth" in reference to the Space Forum and the Space Resources initiative, as well as SES and RTL. "We are proud whet we have done to date but are more proud what we can do in the future".
